


A Nice Game to Play

by LivesToLead



Category: Camp Camp (Web Series)
Genre: Ages 17-18, Alternate Universe - High School, Angst, David's a music teacher, Deception, Everyones a senior, F/M, Friends to Lovers, Friendship, Gwemom, Gwen's an author, Gwens a mom, I have a lot planned for this, Max catches feelings?, Max is a 'social' smoker, Max is a little shit, Neil and Nikki are step siblings, Neil is just trying to live among the drama, Neils a protective older brother, Nikki does every sport, Rare Pair, Sasha and Max are fuck buddies, Slow Burn, The main ship is Max and Nikki, but not a lot, dadvid, give it a chance please, he's trying his hardest at least, high school parties, implications of sex, lots of deception, they're great parents
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-09-20
Updated: 2018-02-15
Packaged: 2019-01-01 01:04:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 10
Words: 36,609
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12145212
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LivesToLead/pseuds/LivesToLead
Summary: “What that also means is that I’ll be leaving as well, these are my final words to you, the student body,” David feels his body go rigid at the words, knowing there was more the speech, silently praying David waits, along with the students that have come to know the Max’s tendencies so well, “well I would just like to say,” Max takes a big inhale before grabbing the mic with both hands, “Fuck you all and good bye you little Shits!”~*~David's offered a job offer at a better school, which means moving to a different district and Max has to leave his High school behind, which isn't too bad he decides, because he didn't actually care about school. They arrive and the school is, something else, David finds it perfect though. Max quickly makes friends with a small group consisting of Neil, Nikki, and Harrison. When Max's old "friend" Sasha finds out about his new friends, especially one in particular, she convinces him to play a game.Or in other words: Sasha and Max are a "thing" and Sasha hates Nikki and when she finds out Max has become her friend, she wants to break Nikki in a brand new wayLAST NAME OF DAVID &GWEN forestwater87 on tumblr





	1. Morning Announcements

**Author's Note:**

> This has been in my head for a while and I have a whole plot and story already plotted out, I promise I'm gonna try and make it good, I'm working really hard on it, please take my baby.  
> I listened to Can I Get A Witness by SonReal while writing this, to just try and encapture just how, horrible? Max is.  
> I was also inspired on the character designs by tumblr user tallgirl14, their art work is absolutely fantastic, go check them out, http://tallgirl14.tumblr.com/

A month in and the heat still beats down onto the school, air conditioning turned on high in each classroom, the days dragging on as tired students try to adjust to their early schedules once more. Morning announcements drag on about lunches you could eat if you wanted to die, clubs no one cares about, and sports you can join if you’re a masochist, if you were into those kind of things that is. Towards the end of the announcements there was usually special information about a play coming up or some special event that the student council put together.

“And now here with special announcements, Max Greenwood.” There’s a slight pause, the students wait with bored looks on their faces and teachers sit at front eyeing the class.

“Hello there Stevenson High and welcome to the special announcements.” Max’s voice is chipper, David looks up at the intercom with slight suspicion. “As some of you may know, today is our beloved music teacher, and my dad's, last day here at this fine establishment, if we could all give Mr. Greenwood a big round of applause.” The sound of clapping comes in from the com, some classes, especially the music class, join in on the clapping, others, not so much. David gives a smile to his students, then turns his attention back to the announcements. “What that also means is that I’ll be leaving as well, these are my final words to you, the student body,” David feels his body go rigid at the words, knowing there was more the speech, silently praying David waits, along with the students that have come to know the Max’s tendencies so well, “well I would just like to say,” Max takes a big inhale before grabbing the mic with both hands, “Fuck you all and good bye you little Shits!” There’s scuffle heard over the intercom as multiple teachers gasp and students begin to laugh and talk, David only sighs as he begins to get up, deciding on a student to be in charge whilst he’s away for a moment.

“And those are the morning announcements!” A hurried voice comes through. “Also if Mr. Greenwood come to the office for a moment of his time that would be great! Go hawks!” The transmission is cut off.

“I’ll be right back,” David puts on a big smile, “Gina, you’re in charge!” The girl nods as David leaves, his smile immediately dropping as soon as he leaves the classroom. “Of all days.” he sighs walking down the hall. 

Max is already sitting in the principal's office when he gets there, he doesn’t look guilty or upset when he looks over at him, he looks like a smug son of a bitch, because he knows there’s nothing he can do to him now their leaving the next day, no detention or suspension, nothing. Mrs. Haverford sits at her desk, hands folded together in front of her looking between the two with tired eyes, almost four years of having to deal with Max, dealing with David was fine, he was actually the perfect teacher, go this grades in on time, his students had nothing bad to say about him, was an excellent volunteer for field trips and any activities, like fundraisers and things, and just in general a good person. So when the school had gotten news that his son was going to attend, naturally they all assumed he would take after David, and of course David never had anything bad to say about anyone, especially Max, so when freshman year rolled around, it was bit of a surprise. 

Max was quiet, except when insulting another student, he was smart, but he wasn’t humble, nor was he gentle when it came to other students, he hated teamwork, which of course never ended well, he thought sports were dumb and “Is big in high school, but after that who gives a shit?”, clubs were a way to make friends, but according to Max it was a good gateway into becoming a “fucking cultist”. But despite all his protests to join in, Max did end up becoming very popular, just not in the way people were expecting. There was some type of underground ring he was running, and no one could quiet seem to figure it out, again, he was a very smart kid, smart enough to not get caught. That and he had somehow gotten close to one of the more “popular” groups in the school, consisting of Sasha Chandler, Erin McNamara, and Tabii “with two eyes” Duke, especially with Sasha, and with friends like that, he came to know almost everyone, also being one of the most popular teachers ‘son’ helped a lot. He tutored some, but mostly because David had signed him up for it, thinking it might be a good thing for him to meet new people, which worked, but for a different reason than David thought. 

Max’s “underground ring”, was him writing essays and doing homework in exchange for money, and on occasion he would give out test answers, but only to people he knew weren’t reckless, he wasn’t an idiot, he knew he could get suspended or even expelled for those kinds of things, he also knew it could put David’s job at risk, and Max couldn’t even begin to imagine how David would be without teaching or how disappointed he would be if he ever found out about his after school “activities”.

“Now,” Mrs. Haverford begins after a moment of silence, “you and I both know that today’s your last day, which explains Max’s sudden outburst.” She leans back in her chair rubbing at her forehead. “Which leaves us with the issue of what exactly his punishment should be.” 

“I for one, don’t appreciate being talked about like I’m not here.” Max says pointedly.

“I completely understand, and agree.” David continues on the conversation, ignoring the teenager next to him. “May I suggest lunch detention.” The principal smiles a bit at the suggestion.

“David what the fuck?” Max leans over, whisper yelling at his guardian in a, how could he betray me like this, kind of way. 

“Well that’s a splendid idea.” Mrs. Haverford’s mouth forms a cheshire cat smile as she turns to look at Max. “Room 131 during lunch, and attendance will be taken.” She looks back at David. “Thank you, you’re both dismissed.” 

The two leave the office, Max’s face more sour than ever as he walks next to David whose face is neutral, once their out of earshot Max begins. 

“What the hell David?” He nearly shouts as he turns fully towards his guardian. “You’re going to make me spend my last lunch here stuck in detention?” they both stop in the middle of the hallway. 

“Well maybe you should have thought of that before you went shouting profanities on the school’s morning announcements.” David scolds lightly looking at Max who was now at eye level, no longer the small boy he adopted all those years ago.

“I did!” Max yells. “But you weren’t supposed to side with Nancy!”

“Mrs. Haverford.” David corrects sternly, making Max look away with a scowl. “Now, I expect you to go to room 131 during lunch and sit there quietly, do you understand.” He crosses his arms.

“Sure, whatever.” Max says refusing to look at him. 

“Alright, well I love you, and get to class.” uncrossing his arms he watches as a hint of a smile comes across Max’s face, but it’s gone just as fast.

“Yeah, love you too.” Max grumbles under his breath as he walks towards his second period. 

 

Lunch time rolls around and Max stands in front of room 131, he takes out his phone when he feels it vibrate in his pocket. 

**‘Where are you???’** Sasha, Max presses his lips together and types back as he steps into the classroom. 

**‘Lunch Detention for morning announcements.’** He sits down in an empty desk as he waits for a response. 

**‘So? Just sneak out, I wanna see you before you leave ;)’** Max catches himself smirking at the text. 

**‘Well suck it up buttercup, their taking attendance this time.’** It takes a moment or two before Sasha to text back.

**‘Hold on, I’m sending in Erin and Tabii in’** He looks at the text with a raised eyebrow, but shrugs as the bell rings signaling the beginning of detention, he sticks his phone back in his pocket. 

The teacher takes attendance, students letting out groans in response of their names, the name on the board reads, Mr. Schnebly, he watches each student with a close eye, Max sits in his chair making brief eye contact with the ‘warren’, deciding he’s weak due to him immediately looking away as soon as a glare was sent his way. Max doesn’t look up when there’s a knock on the door, but he does when he hears Erin’s voice, he watches with a raised eyebrow as she talks animatedly about some nonsense casually sitting on the teacher’s desk, her skirt sliding up slowly, Max watches Mr.Schnebly look down quickly then back at her smiling,  _ ‘Gross’ _ . He nearly jumps though when he feels a tap on his shoulder, he looks down to see Tabii kneeling down next to his desk. 

“Tabii?” He whispers. “What’re you doing here?” Looking back to the front to see the pervert still distracted.

“Sasha really wants to see you.” She whispers giggling a bit. “Here, gimme your hoodie.” Confused Max unzips his jacket and hands it over to her as she slips it on, putting the hood up. “Let me in your seat.” Max keeping his eyes forward casually slips out of his seat and Tabii slips in, keeping her head down. 

Max now on the ground looks up at her from the ground, she looks over at him motioning for him to leave, he nods as he somewhat crawls across the floor to the door, Erin looks over her shoulder to give him a thumbs up and a wink, Mr. schnebly moves to look, but she turns back around laughing loudly and touching his shoulder, Max lets out a sigh of relief as he continues to crawl, he makes it to the door turning around quickly just for precaution, he makes eye contact, with what must be a freshman, he smiles with a wink before slipping out of the classroom, he rounds the corner causally, only to be pulled in by his shirt, immediately his caught up in a kiss, he pulls away to look down at the girl before him. Long salmon colored hair straightened out in a half up, half down do, wearing a pink halter crop top and white high waisted shorts, her makeup is done, how she puts it, “So good, jesus himself would cry”.  

“God, I hate this shirt.” Sasha looks at his chest with a look of disgust.

“Yeah, but you’re still gonna fuck me even if I am wearing it.” Max pulls her close around the waist. “Because from what I hear you want one last taste.” He smirks watching as Sasha blushes just a bit under her makeup. 

“Whatever,” she rolls her eyes at him with a tone of annoyance, giving him a quick kiss on the lips before pulling away to grab his hand, leading him in the direction of the music department, “the practice rooms are still open, let’s make this quick.” 

 

To be honest, that was almost too quick, Max lays on the wood flooring, he enjoys the feeling of cool floor against his back, he looks over at Sasha, using her phone as a mirror, she reapplies any makeup that had gotten smudged during their ‘activities’.  She looks back at him, she smirks as she glances down at his neck.

“Sit up.” He does as he’s told, she scotches towards him with her red lipstick in hand. 

“Really?” Max glowers at her feeling at his neck, even though he knows he won’t be able to feel anything. “I thought we agreed, no more hickeys.” He mumbles as she swipes the lipstick on, then starts to work her magic with concealer and eyeshadow, since they aren’t exactly the same skin tone, she has to improvise. 

“Yes, but,” she sighs as she works on his neck, “this is the last time for a while, so I thought, why the hell not.” She backs up looking at her handy work. “Besides,” Sasha throws his ‘ugly’ shirt at him, “what’re fuck buddies for?” She begins to tug on her own clothes. 

“Right.” Max tugs on his shirt with a grimace as they prepare themselves to exit the room like they didn’t just had sex in there. 

Now, there was nothing there,no romantic feelings, no adoration for each other, no nothing, they just happened to like to fuck on occasion when they were bored, thats the full truth. How’d that happen? Well last year, yeah it might have been a bit early, but honestly they did not give a fuck. They had known each other since freshman year, when Max started offering to do other kids homework for money, it was that and she thought her and her little clique could gain some perks from being friends with someone who had a parent on the staff. Pretty soon they found they both enjoyed the others cunningness and ability to bullshit, now what drew them to the first time of their activity, was sasha had an attraction to the type of power Max had over the students and most of the staff. So one thing led to another, it was nothing but a sweet release of tension. It was only meant to happen once, but then they got bored, and then they just kept getting bored and they kept on going, and it wasn’t like either of them cared anyway. 

They make their way out of the music department and to the back of the school, hopefully undetected, as they walk Sasha pulls out a pack of half empty cigarettes, wordlessly she points it towards Max, he takes one out waiting for her to pull out her lighter, he holds it between his teeth as they continue to walk. Sasha pulls out her lighter which has the sunset on a beach printed onto it with some phrase that girls use on their instagram posts when their trying to be artsy. They both lean against the school wall, inhaling the smoke in silence. Now Max wouldn’t say he’s a smoker, Sasha is though, she smokes a at least two packs a week, Max on the other hand is a social smoker, meaning he only smokes when he’s with friends and he’s offered,but even then just being around it and smelling it is enough for him to be okay, and decline a cig.

“So you’re going to go to Campbell High?” She squints at him as the sun beats down on them. 

“Yeah, know anyone there?” He asks watching as she inhales deeply. 

“No one interesting,” she rolls her eyes, smoke pouring out of her mouth as she talks, “although, Tabii is absolutely obsessed with this guy Neil something or other that goes there, I have no idea why though, he’s a major nerd and completely gross.” She shakes her head, tapping lightly on her cigarette then setting it back in her mouth, Max puts his out, even though it’s only halfway done.

Max waits until Sasha’s done with hers before they head back inside the school, they wait for the bell to ring to dismiss lunch and stand around the corner so to meet up with Tabii. She comes out of the room with Max’s bag on her shoulder and hoodie in hand. 

“Thanks Tabii.” He says with a curt nod, she smiles at him as she follows Sasha when she starts to walk away her summer dress flowing behind her. 

Max sighs and heads to his next class, his stomach growls as he realizes he didn’t even eat lunch

 

The day finally ends and Max heads to the music department for the second time that day to grab David so they could head home to do some last minute packing up, so they’re prepared to leave in the morning. David makes a few last notes for the new teacher for tomorrow before he turns towards Max with a box of his things in his hands and says he’s ready to go. They sit in the car, the radio spewing some nonsense podcast that David had chosen for the short car ride, Max rolls his eyes, but doesn’t move for his ear phones. When they arrive to the apartment, Gwen is sitting on David and hers shared air mattress, typing on her computer, her fingers moving faster than Max thought was possible for a human, she looks up and smiles at the two setting her laptop to the side. 

“Hey guys.” She makes no attempt to get up, knowing David would come to her as she watches him set his box of things down on the kitchen counter. “ How was your days?” She asks as David comes over leaning down to give her a kiss on the forehead and sits down next to her. 

“Well,” David starts, then looks over at Max, “lets just say I owe you ten bucks.” He mumbles a bit, Gwen’s eyes go wide as she looks at Max, her grin spreading slightly. 

“You little shit!” She yells gleefully pointing at him. “What did you do?” She asks genuinely interested.

“I got on the announcements and basically told everyone to fuck off.” Max shrugs, but smiles a bit at Gwen’s laughter.

“Hey language.” David scolds and then turns to a laughing Gwen with a slight scowl. “You really shouldn’t be encouraging this.” She nods in agreement taking a breath to calm herself.

“You’re right, I’m sorry, but” she lets a little laugh slip through her lips, looking at Max, “you couldn’t behave yourself for one day.”

Max shakes his head no, heading into the kitchen area to see if they had anything left over from last night’s take out, looking over his shoulder real quick to catch a glimpse of Gwen leaning on David’s shoulder as they talked about Gwen’s progress on her second book. Her first book, became popular, but not exactly book signing popular, but enough to have a sort of fandom surrounded it. Even then David and Max were still very proud of her and encouraged her to start on her second one, Max forgets if it’s a sequel or a separate story. Seeing the two smile and be happy be together always seemed to warm Max’s heart, not that he would ever admit it to anyone. They had been married for a year now and had met when he was 12, just a year or two after he was adopted by David. After grabbing a piece of pizza Max goes and flops down onto his back in front of his two parents on the air mattress,chewing on the cold pizza.

“When you’re done eating, you should go see if there’s anything last minute in there and then stick your bags in the car so you’re ready to go in the morning.” Gwen speaks pushing his hair back, he half heartedly swats her away, taking the pizza out of his mouth. 

“If this is place is only thirty minutes away how come we’re leaving at the asscrack of dawn?” He questions eyebrows scrunched as he looks between the two adults. 

“Well so we can get most of our moving done during the day and hopefully start unpacking saturday.” David states simply, a smile pointed down at Max, he twists his mouth to one side before sighing and swinging himself to his feet heading to his room. 

“Just call me when you dinners ready.” Max calls out before closing the door to his old room.


	2. The Gang

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Max has an unexpected encounter while picking up pizza

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is completely unedited, I'll probably go in later to fix it, but most likely not  
> Please be gentle

“This sucks.” Max huffs out, carrying boxes threw the small lobby of their new apartment complex towards the elevator.

“Are you fucking kidding me?” Gwen’s voice is strained as it comes from behind him, Max turns to look over the boxes he’s holding to see her and David holding their couch, it’s a bit small, but it’s probably one of their heavier pieces of furniture.

Max looks away to press the up button of the elevator with his elbow, looking back with a shit eating grin he steps inside, the doors closing leaving him with the image of the two struggling with couch. Apartment buildings are the absolute worst, at least in Max’s opinion, he finds them too crowded and people always seem to be in your business, that and if the elevator is out of order then you have to take the stairs, which he had always found the most annoying part due to them living in the sixth floor, but now they lived on the third, so it couldn’t be as bad, but still annoying. He walks down the hall to where the door was already open, they hired a few movers, they already brought up all of the heavy and big pieces of furniture, the only things left in the truck were the boxes and the couch, which Gwen and David insisted on taking up, wrong move. Max takes the boxes into his new room, setting them in the corner, he looks around at grey walls and his pieces of furniture he’d have to take care of when the mover were done bringing everything up. Max walks over to the window, he looks out at his new surroundings with a neutral face, the sun is bright and he can feel the heat radiating in through his window, the urge to stay inside and not go back to getting boxes growing, but he figures that’s easier than listening to a lecture from Gwen, or worse, David. 

The two are in the hallway with the couch when he walks out the door, he almost laughs, David is sitting on the couch like he’s going to mold into it completely, while gwen has her legs hanging over the side her head in David’s lap, they both look sweaty and exhausted. He watches as two of the movers come out and look where Max was staring at the moment, the taller one of the two speaks up.

“Do you want us to bring it the rest of the way?” He asks, Gwen and David look at each other and nod, before slowly getting up so they can take the couch. 

“And you can put it in front of the TV next to the chair.” David directs holding onto Gwen’s waist as she leans against him for support, Max goes to move past them, but Gwen grabs hold of his shoulder before he can go any further. 

“Hey,” Max looks over at her, “I ordered a pizza, can you go get it, it’s about time for pick up.” She doesn’t wait for a response, she just hands him the keys to their car. “Papa John’s, it’s a few blocks down, under the name Simpsons, it’s already paid for.” Gwen ruffles his hair as he ducks down the hallway, he lets himself smile a bit once he gets to the elevator. 

The Drive is very short and there’s not much to look at, in terms of scenery that is, Max gets out of the car looking across the street to see some sort of street magic going on, he shrugs it off and heads inside. 

“Pizza for Simpson.” Max says with a blank face, the man behind the counter gives him a look. 

“Yeah, gimme a second.” He turns towards their shelves of pizza boxes, examining the names on the side before picking one out with a smaller box on top. “Here you go,” he sets the boxes on top of the counter along with a 2 liter bottle of sprite, “One large cheese pizza, bread stick and sprite, have a nice day.” Max nods as he grabs the food and heads back to the car, he sets the things down on the passenger's seat and shuts the door. 

As Max heads around to the driver's side he hears yelling, he looks up to see the guy that was doing the magic tricks stepping back slowly, while three guys start to close in around him. He sighs getting into the car,  _ ‘That’s why you don’t try to pull tricks on a bunch of dudes twice your size’ _ , Max turns around in his seat to back up, but can’t help but to catch sight of two other people coming into the equation, both look around his age, one is a really tall lanky, nervous looking guy, and the other is a girl with short green hair. The girl is pushing the magician behind her, she looks angry as she looks up at the main guy who seems to be saying something to her, he can’t hear them, but whatever the man said must’ve been bad, because he watches the girls face twist into something ferocious and punches him so hard he falls to the ground and change flies out of his pocket. Max feels himself jolt back a bit in his seat, that looked like one powerful punch, he pulls out of his parking spot and turns his car around to leave, but he’s caught up in the scene before him, the girl looks ready to fight them all off, while her two friends seem to be trying to convince her to stop. 

Max looks between the pizza on the seat and the three teens in front of him,  _ ‘They look like they can handle themselves, and I can go home and eat my pizza in peace, or, _ ’. He watches as the biggest guy grabs hold of the lankiest teen and the guy that fell to the ground begins to get up, Max lets out a sigh of frustration. 

“Shit.” He mumbles to himself before speeding his car across the street, he stops right next to the six on the sidewalk, for a second everyone stands there stunned, he rolls down the passenger side window. “Well what are you waiting for get in!” He yells at the three, the magician is the first one to react. 

The tall, lanky one, takes the opportunity and wiggles himself free and follows the magician into the back of the car hurriedly turning around to call after the girl. 

“Nikki Come on!” he yells for her, she goes to jump in, but before she can she turns around and as hard as she can, she kicks the leader of the three guys a in the crotch, making all the guys in the car flinch, he falls to the ground with a silent scream on his lips, she quickly moves the pizza box onto her lap and sits down. Max finds himself staring at the girl with the green hair and the hot pink eyes.

“What’re you waiting for?!” The girls, Nikki, voice brings him out of his stupor as he notices the three guys running at the car. “Go!” She yells, Max hits his foot on the gas pedal, they all go surging forward leaving the boys behind in the dust, she leans half her body out the window. “Suck a dick!” The proceeds to give the middle finger. 

“Nikki sit down!” The skinny boy pulls her in by her shirt from the back seat, she sits down with a smile. “Also put on your seat belt, what if we get in a car crash.” Max looks down to see he’s going  _ way _ above the speed limit, he moves his foot back slowly to get them back down to a normal speed. 

“Calm down Neil,” she brushes him off, though she does reaches to put on her seat belt, “besides, the one you should be mothering is Harrison.” Looking over the seat she smiles.

“Yeah, I thought we talked about doing magic tricks where you can’t bring the objects back.” Neil turns his body towards the magician named Harrison, his voice scolding. 

“It wasn’t my fault, he said he wanted to see another trick, and the first thing he gave me was his wallet.” Harrison rubs the back of his head in embarrassment. 

“Yeah, sure.” Nikki winks and turns back around to look out the windshield with a content smile, they sit in silence as Max continues to drive around, turning random corners, he coughs to catch the attention of the trio, Nikki looks at him like she’s suddenly aware that he’s there, she smiles at him. “Oh, hey there, I’m Nikki.” Reaching her hand out Max shakes it briefly before putting his hand back on the wheel, he looks in the rear view mirror at the two boys in the back. 

“I’m Max.” He pulls to a stop at a red light, using the opportunity to turn around to face the boys fully. “Harrison?” Max points to the boy behind his seat, Harrison nods,   then turning towards the other one. “Neil.” Neil nods. “Nice to meet you three, now,” he turns back around and moves forward with the green light, “where am I dropping you guys off?”

“Just keep going straight.” Nikki says opening the pizza box the smell coming out and hitting her face. “This all for you?” She teases, he looks at her and bites back a smile. 

“Don’t be stupid,” his voice betrays his grumpy face, “my parents are waiting for me back at home.”

“Turn left.” Neil speaks up, Max turns on his blinker. 

“Alright Maxie pad,” Nikki leans towards him, examining him. “I’ve never seen you around here before, just move here?” Max allows himself to let out a little chuckle. 

“Observant.” He raises an eyebrow looking at her briefly before turning back to the road. “Yeah, we were actually moving everything in today, un packing tomorrow.” Max repeats David’s words as Nikki points to take another left. 

“Does that mean you’re going to Campbell?” Harrison asks from behind, his voice surprising Max due to him being quiet for most of the car ride. 

“Yep.” Max pops the p on the word as he keeps driving. “I’m starting there on Monday, you guys go there?” He asks.

“Yep.” Nikki mocks him, he scrunches his lips to the side to avoid showing emotion, she smiles at him and grabs at his hoodie. “Here.” Max comes to a stop in front of a building, the trio unbuckle their seatbelts. “See you monday, hope you don’t die by then.” She sets the pizza back down on the seat and hops out of the car with a smile and into the building, Max watches her with slight confusion. 

“That’s how she say’s bye and thank you.” Neil shrugs with a smile. “See you and thanks.” He’s awkward as he scooches out the door, followed by Harrison who just gives him a curt nod before closing the door behind him. 

Max leans back against the seat and lets out a long sigh, before taking the car out of park and drives away, he looks down at the time, 20 minutes of complete randomness, it takes him a bit longer than he expected to find his way back, but glad he was finally home as he stood in the elevator, pizza and bread stick box balanced in one hand as he holds the soda bottle in the other.  He makes it to the red door, kicking it until someone answers, it’s Gwen, she looks at him with a raised eyebrow and takes the boxes from him and turning around to walk further inside the apartment, Max follows her.

“Max is back.” Gwen calls out to David, the sound of boxes falling can be heard from the next room, Max stop short in the small hallway bracing himself for David, soda still in hand. 

David jumps out from the corner nearly tackling Max as he brings him into a hug, squeezing him so tight, Max thought that he might break a bone. He starts to ramble on about how he thought he might be dead, and he left his phone home, and how David had called Papa John’s and said they hadn’t seen him since he picked up the food. 

“David,” Max pulls away, shoving the sprite towards him to hold it, “I’m fine, just got side tracked.” He walks past David to get to where Gwen was setting out the pizza on three plates. 

“Were you smoking again?” Max flinches at the tone in his voice, Gwen looks up to look at the two walk in. 

“Of course he wasn’t,” Gwen goes to walk next to Max taking him by the shoulder, “because he knows that if he was caught doing that again he’d be in a lot of trouble.” Her voice turning more rough and her fingers pinching into his skin as she speaks, Max starts to crumple under Gwen’s pinch. “Right Max?” She smiles at him.

“Right.” He chokes out, satisfied Gwen releases her grip on him and pats his back, David looks unsure, but lets it slide and puts on a smile and walks past Max to the pizza giving a quick sniff as he passes, as precaution, Max rolls his eyes and follows them to the pizza.

“So,” David starts, “what was it that got you so side tracked?” He’s looking for an explanation other than smoking or drinking, Max can’t exactly blame, he could count the amount of times he’s thrown a small ‘get together’ at their old apartment and had the two come home earlier than expected to see red solo cups filled with alcohol and people smoking cigarettes and other things.

“I saw three people my age get into a fight, well more like one of them, a girl with green hair punched a guy so hard change fell out of his pocket like in a video game, it looked like it was about to get bad so I decided to pick them up, a weird bunch of people, basically a spitfire, a loser, and a magician, we drove around for a while before they finally told me how to take them home.” Max waits for their reactions, they process the information, Gwen’s face is one of confusion and she’s about to say something about picking up aggressive strangers, but before she could even start in on him David’s voice comes in. 

“You’re making friends already?” His voice is filled with so much joy Max looks at him with a face of disgust. “Oh I’m so proud of you!” David’s eyes glimmer with what Max can only guess is pride. 

Looking over at Gwen she makes a face before mocking David’s child like look, making laugh smile slightly, she looks at him with her own smile before biting into her pizza. David and Gwen both had completely different parenting styles, David for starters didn’t exactly believe in grounding, which was fine with Max when he first came to live with him as a foster kid, but he did believe in letting you alone with your thoughts and learning from your actions, which included silent treatment and acting like nothing ever happened, which did get to him, it was like silent torture, what he did wrong eating away at him for a week before he came to David admitting to what he did wrong and that he was sorry. David’s parenting also included a lot of bonding, especially at the beginning of their journey, he wants to stay in touch with Max, he wanted to know everything about him, what made him Max, what he didn’t like and how he could help him, it was, nice, especially when Max was feeling particularly down, they did some bonding once a month or whenever they felt it was appropriate. Now Gwen, that’s an entire different area, when she and David started going out and she met Max, she didn’t know what to do or how to tell him what to do. She wouldn’t discipline him for a while even after knowing him for a few months, mostly she’s joke around with him and that was fun because she’d mock David just as much as he did and she liked the same things as him, so it made her more likeable, Max thinks her breaking point was when David decided they needed to spend more time together and sent them out together, Max had decided he didn’t need her to take care of him, so he wandered and then got lost, though he refuses to admit it, for at least thirty minutes and when Gwen finally found him, she was livid, she grabbed him by the arm and dragged him all the way to the car and was yelling at him the whole way to David’s apartment, talking about how worried she was and she thought he had been stolen and how she was  _ this _ close to calling the police. Max realized that’s how she showed she cared, as he sat in his room, grounded for running off, per Gwen’s suggestion, he decided maybe Gwen wasn’t so bad. After they got married, he’d get grounded and sometimes not, but either way he always knew that they cared for him and he liked the feeling that came with punishments he’d never been bestowed with, because it showed they cared and loved him. Gwen showed it through punishment and David just told him all the time. 

 

Max lays onto his mattress on the floor, tomorrow they would put together a lot of the furniture and then start on unpacking, but he didn’t mind being so low on the floor for the moment, it was actually pretty nice. Grabbing ahold of Mr. Honeynuts and setting him next to his pillow he’s about asleep when his phone starts to vibrate, he picks it up placing it on his ear, his other hand is over his eyes. 

“Hello?” His voice is hoarse with sleep that slowly slips out of his reach. 

“Oo, your night time voice,” Sasha’s voice is clear over the phone, he nearly groaned out frustratedly, “sexy.” She purrs out, Max narrows his eyes at the darkness above him. 

“What the fuck do you want?” He growls out wanting to sleep.

“Nothing!” She shouts. “Is it really so bad for one friend to call the other?” Her voice is laced with innocence, but he knows better. 

“Yes,” he says simply, “especially when one friend has shit to do in the morning and doesn’t have the patience to talk, now, what do you want?”

“Fine, well you know how you did all that homework and essays and shit when you were here?” He lets out a huff of air in response. “Yeah, so a lot of us were wondering if you were still going to be doing that?” She asks.

“What?” He looks at the phone in disbelief. “Are you shitting me? You call me at 3 a.m. to ask if I’m still doing your fucking homework?” Max lowers his voice, but it’s still annoyed. 

“Calm down,” her voice sounds just as annoyed as his, “I don’t really care about anyone else's, just my own, I payed you to do my essay for English and I never got it, it’s due on Monday.” Max lets out a long sigh.

“I’ll email it to you tomorrow morning.” He rolls his eyes. “Anything else?” 

“How was your day?” She says not actually interested, but just talking to talk, Max can imagine her on the other side laying on her bed filing away at her nails. 

“Well if you really must know,” his voice mock interest, “I let three stranger into David’s car while I was picking up pizza,” she makes a sound of disgust at the mention of the food, “do you know a Neil, Nikki, and a Harrison?” He asks, wanting to know if these were some of the nobody’s she was talking about.

“I told you there was a Neil that Tabii was obsessing-” but she stops mid sentence. “Wait did you say Nikki?” Sasha’s voice suddenly interested.

“Uh , yeah?” Max says confused. “Ya’ know her?” He asks waiting for her response.

“Did she have green hair?” Max hums in confirmation, and then hears a laugh over the line. “My phones dying, but text me later,” she laughs again, “oh my god.” She says more to herself as the line goes silent on the other end. 

Max looks down at his phone with a confused face, before setting his phone to the side with frustration and turns on his side and waits for his sleep to come back, annoyed it was interrupted in the first place. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you enjoyed that, I have a head canon that Gwen likes to use fake last names when ordering pizza for fun and Max absolutely loves it, even though he won't admit it.  
> Thanks for reading


	3. School

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Max get's a sense for the school

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Way longer than I intended  
> I hope you enjoy!  
> I had some help from tallgirl14 on tumblr go check her out!  
> http://tallgirl14.tumblr.com/  
> Also new head cannon's  
> -Nikki and Neil keep tabs on everyone at school in a notebook  
> -nikki Neil and Ered do jam sessions  
> -Nikki on drums  
> -Neil on piano  
> -Ered on guitar
> 
> Not edited

Max sent Sasha an email with her essay attached in the morning with a note at the bottom saying,  **Enjoy the last A on a paper you’ll ever get** , he felt pretty good about it. Getting out of bed was probably the hardest thing so far, but he had to get to his coffee if he was ever going to survive the day, maneuvering through the boxes strewn around the apartment, Max makes it to the kitchen, with the success of tripping only once. Of course when he got to the kitchen though, the coffee machine is out, but the actual coffee is nowhere to be seen, he pulls at his face and goes into Gwen and David’s room to see Gwen laying on her side in bed, their mattress also stays on the floor, typing something on her phone, Max moves to stand in front of her, he doesn’t see David anywhere.

“Gwen,” she looks up briefly then back at her phone, “coffee.” He says grumpily, as if he were a toddler demanding a cookie. 

“Wait.” Gwen grumbles out still looking at her phone, Max looks around the room.

“Wheres David?” He asks. “Shouldn’t he be up and telling me what to do by now?” 

“He’s getting the coffee.” Gwen yawns out the sentence, then continues to type. 

Max stands there for a little longer, his feet and legs already tired from lack of caffeine, he starts nudge Gwen with his foot to the side. 

“What’re you doing?” Her voice is annoyed as he continues to nudge. 

“Just scoot over.” Gwen does, letting Max climb in next to her, he turns his body to face her, which he regrets when he see’s her smug face. 

“Aren’t you a little old to be climbing into your parent’s bed?” She teases, Max glares at her. 

“And aren’t you a little old.” He bites back, she laughs a bit going back to typing, he lets himself get comfortable, his eyes closing again. 

He’s not sure how much time passes before he’s woken up by David who has his coffee in the next room, but he doesn’t care as he sips at it, black, his favorite. After everyone drinks their caffeine, and eats something, per David’s request,they start working, they start in Max’s room, putting together his bed frame and boxspring then setting his mattress on top, next was his desk which was a little more complicated since it came with a lot more screws that kept disappearing and reappearing. Moving on, they repeated the same process in Gwen and David’s room, after finishing they worked on the tv stand in the living room, after they finish putting together all their furniture they begin unpacking in different areas of the house, David in the kitchen, Gwen in their room and Max unpacking his own. Max left his phone alone, due to Sasha blowing it up, he’d rather not talk to her knowing if he did he’d get stuck talking to her instead of doing actual work. He listens to music through his computer instead deciding it’s better than it getting interrupted every other minute, by a chime. The day is long, boring and hot, but by dinner time most of the boxes are empty, which Max is glad he won’t have to deal with because he’ll have school tomorrow, which also means he has school tomorrow. 

Sitting around the kitchen table it’s quiet due to everyone being exhausted from the constant work, the two adults are holding hands as they eat lazily, Max looks at their hands and back to his plate. He always wondered what it was like to be with someone that you loved so much that you could hands or casually touch each other and have it not be a big deal. He’d catch them, sometimes really night, just slow dancing in the living room with no music, just them and the silence of the night. Or when they decided to cook together in the mornings on special occasions, he could hear them laughing from the other room. They also had a habit of just staring at each other, although that was mostly at the beginning of their relationship, but sometimes he would catch them doing it. Max has seen this though for the past five or six years and before it was something he found completely revolting and now, it was something. Some feeling in his chest, when he saw them together, it was warm, but he felt empty. 

The first time he and Sasha and him had gotten together his immediate thought after was,  _ ‘That’s it?’  _ he wasn’t going to lie, it felt good, like really good, but he didn’t  _ feel _ anything, he thought there was supposed to be some sort of explosion or jolt of realization that was going to happen, but nothing. Max watched Sasha sleep for a long time, thinking that maybe if he just looked at her it would happen, but no, so he got dressed and left. From then on, he thought love was a rare thing, and he ignored the little sting he’d get in his chest when Sasha told him he should leave immediately after having sex, he doesn’t think it’s that big of a deal. He sees Gwen and David, and how much they love each other and how much they love him and he thinks they're one of the lucky ones who get to have that feeling.

Max continues to ignore his phone when he heads to bed for the night, making sure to say goodnight to David and Gwen and telling him he loved them, which was something he only did on special occasions, but he was feeling sentimental tonight, and seeing their shocked faces were always worth it.

 

Mornings in general are fine, but mornings before school were the worst due to David’s attitude, he’s usually happy, but he’s over the moon happy whenever it’s a weekday, or the first day of school, and unfortunately this was both. Max is awoken by a jumping on the bed, he opens his eyes to see David standing over him with a wide grin, Max glares.

“Get the fuck off my bed.” Max growls pulling at his sheets. 

“Oh come on Max,” David jumps off to get eye to eye, “first day at a new school, new friends.” He shakes his shoulder try to entice him, Max turns around. 

“Who said I had friends at the other school.” He jerks away from David’s touch. 

“C’mon now, we both know that’s not true.”

“Just get up Max.” Gwen’s voice calls out, they both turn to look at her in the doorway, she looks at David. “I’ll get him up, why don’t you go get ready.” He nods and practically skips out the door, Gwen smiling after him.

“He’s a literal child.” Max sits up in bed, rubbing his eyes.

“Yeah,” Gwen sighs out, looking back at the teenager, “but he’s our child.” Max gives her a small smile, she returns it. “Now get dressed, while I distract David.”

“Distract?” Max asks looking at her with furrowed eyebrows, Gwen gives him a smug smile and then winks as she leaves the room, he stares at the closed door for a little longer before speaking out. “That’s Fucking Disgusting!” He can hear her laughing.

Max waits for David in the car, he shudders when he see’s a purple bruise peaking out from his collar, he stares out the window as David talks about his ‘exciting’ schedule and lesson plan he has for the school year. When they arrive, David pulls around front to drop Max off, the teacher parking around back, before David could drive away he turns around and leans against the window. 

“Hey David.”

“Yes Max?” He smiles at him. 

“You might want to take care of that before class starts.” Max gestures to his neck and watches with amusement as David blushes a deep red and slaps his hand to the side of his neck. 

“See you later!” David takes off, leaving Max in the dust.

 

The morning drags on, he doesn’t see the three teens from the other day in any of his classes, he’s not disappointed, but he admits, to himself at least, that it would be nice to have someone to hangout with in class. Teachers are the same though, they all like to smile and play pretend like they aren’t being paid to be nice to the students. Max doesn’t smile back or humor them, he just takes the syllabuses and sits quietly taking notes, and playing on his phone when their not looking. 

Lunch rolls around and that’s when his stomach starts to knot, but he keeps his cool demeanor, taking his time picking out his lunch, he decides a poorly made sandwich with a water and apple is good enough. Slowly he walks over to cafeteria, he stands in front of the students all milling about like bee’s finding their tables and chattering away. He walks with tray in hand looking for an empty table so he could brood and and eat at, once he spots one he walks a little faster, but he’s stopped short by someone putting their hand on his chest, he looks down to see the green haired girl. 

“Max right?” She smiles up at him, he nods.

“Nikki.” He states matter of factly, she nods back with more enthusiasm. 

“Looking for a place to sit,” Max wants to say yes, but doesn't want to come across desperate, luckily she continues on before he can say something, “well look no further.” Grabbing his sleeve she pulls him over to a table, she sits him down and then sits across from him, next to Neil. 

The table holds Harrison, Neil and another girl he hadn’t met before, he’s sitting next to Harrison who’s having an animated conversation with the girl who sits on the other side, she’s sitting next to Neil. 

“Playing pretend is not real magic.” Harrison crosses his arms. 

“It is not  _ pretend _ Harrison, it is Larping in which I have won in many battles using my abilities as an elf and as a mage.” Her lisp is clear as she continues to speak vividly, Max watches the exchange with a raised eyebrow. 

“Hey guys!” Nikki yells to get their attention, they both look at her. “This is Max.” She gestures to him. “Harrison you remember him right? He’s the one that picked us up.” Harrison gives him a brief look before leaning his head on his hand.

“Yeah.” He huffs out playing with his food.

“Nerris,” Max looks at the girl across the table, she looks at him with narrowed eyes as if to examine him better through her glasses, “this is the guy Neil and I were talking about.” Max offers her a small wave. 

“Do you know what D&D is?” She asks with caution, he catches sight of silver braces, he furrows his eyebrows. 

“No?” Nerris sighs.

“Didn’t think so, go about your business.” She waves him off and goes back to eating. 

Max looks to Neil and Nikki for a better explanation, Nikki is eating ravenously, Neil looks back at him and shrugs, then looks down at his book on the table. 

“So,” Max says tossing his apple between his hand, looking at the two in front of him, they both look up at him, “tell me about this place.” Nikki and Neil look at each other before Nikki smiles and turns to him. 

“Well,” Nikki starts, Neil sighs bringing out a notebook, “if you must know, let’s start out with the staff,” Neil turns to a page, the header in all caps,  **‘STAFF’** , Nikki looks at the page briefly then back at Max, “So our principal, Mr. Campbell, his family has owned this school for forever and their super loaded, but he’s barely even here,” she looks up and leans in, to whisper, “it’s theorized around school that he spends a lot of time in russia and was once the president of thailand.” Max raises an eyebrow and looks at Neil for conformation, he nods. “Next, there’s our janitor and sometimes lunch man,” Nikki points over his shoulder to see a scruffy old guy mopping, he’s missing a hand, “we all call him the quartermaster, he’s basically ancient and probably the second creepiest person around this place.” 

“Who’s the first?”  Max asks curiosity getting the better of him. 

“A teacher named Daniel.” Neil speaks out, Max looks over at him. “The word is that he used to be part of a cult, but I still think he is part of it,” Neil looks around suspiciously, “I mean, the guy is constantly smiling and wearing white all the time, that and I think he has most of the staff under his influence!” He slams his fist down on the table making Nerris and Harrison look up, Neil laughs nervously and brings his hands together to rub them. 

“Although all theories are valid until they're proven wrong.” Nikki smiles touching Neil’s shoulder. “Oh!” Nikki writes something down in the book, then looks up at Max. “Then there’s the new music teacher, Mr. Greenwood!” 

“Yeah what about him?” Max asks with an amused face, wondering what exactly David gave off as a first impression to his students. 

“He’s gay!” Max holds his hand to his mouth and nearly spits out his water from laughing. “I mean c’mon it’s kind of obvious, it’s either that or he was part of a cult too, but he seems like a normal amount of happy.” Nikki continues on, Neil nodding along. 

“Uh,” Max speaks up after recovering from almost choking on water. “I hate to burst your guys’ bubble, but David's not gay, he actually has a wife.” They both look at him confused. “Although I totally get where you're coming from.” Max bites his lip to keep from bursting out with laughter. 

“And how exactly do you know this?” Neil asks looking at him like he shouldn’t believe him. 

“He’s my dad.” Max says simply, shrugging his shoulders a bit, his face neutral. 

“Um-” Neil goes to say something, but is cut off by Nikki’s laughter. 

“Your his perfect angle son?” She snorts out, Max rolls his eyes. 

“Yeah,” He huffs out, “he tends to play me up just a bit.” Max takes a bite into his apple. “So tell me about the students.”

“Oh right.” Nikki snaps back to attention Neil flips forward a few pages to a section headed  **‘Social Structure’** , they flip it on it’s side showing a diagram of what looks like the lunch room, Neil sets it so it’s between the three of them. “So,” Nikki points to a table across the cafeteria, “that’s the nerds table” she then points to the diagram on the notebook, “Neil would sit there, but I took pity on him.“ Nikki gives Neil a big smile, he glares back at her, “Oh, and space kid sits over there too, he’s pretty chill.” 

“Why do you call him space kid?” Max asks.

“Well, his name’s Neil too, but he really likes space and  _ our _ Neil, want’s to be the  _ only _ Neil.” Nikki rolls her eyes amused, she then looks back down at the notebook and points to the jocks table. “This is where the jocks sit.”

“Nikki would sit there, but they didn’t want to sit with me.” Neil crosses his arms annoyed. 

“Is it because your nerd.” Max states teasingly taking another bite of his apple, Neil looks at him with narrowed eyes.

“Now you’re getting it!” Nikki exclaims excitedly,without looking she points at another table, she looks down. “Ah, the art kids,” Nikki sighs out contentedly, she looks up to look at Max, “they do theater and paintings and sculptures and shit like that, we really only know  Preston, who’s a complete drama queen, and Dolph, who was raised on a german army base.” Max looks over in their direction to see somebody on top of the table reciting something, he was going to assume that was Preston. “Then there’s Nurf.” Nikki’s face scrunches up in distaste, much like Sasha’s would do whenever Max suggested she eat a school lunch.

“Nurf? What kind of name is that?” Neil looks around before leaning in. 

“His real name is Gaylord, but if he ever caught someone saying it, they’d be in the hospital.” Max inhales a deep breath and letting out a shaky breathe to avoid laughing.

“So, what?”Max looks between the two. “He’s like a bully or something? A loner?” he offers, but Nikki and Neil look at each other.

“Well,” Neil moves his hand back and forth in a so-so gesture.

“He’s like a socially woke bully, who likes to inflict pain at the same time he has some sort of ‘tragic back story’,and is fully aware of his actions and takes full responsibility?”  Thinking about Nurf’s complicated life made Nikki wince.

“I see.” Max looks at her with a scrunched up face,deciding it’s better not to question it too much. “Where does he sit?”

“With Ered.” Neil states simply, Nikki practically bounces in her seat. 

“She is literally the  _ coolest _ person to ever exist.” She tugs him closer by the front of his hoodie, pulling him across the table, then directs his attention to a girl with blonde hair with a pink streak through it, She’s leaning against a big guy with red hair, which he assumes is Nurf. “I don’t know what it is about her, but she just admits an aura of absolute coolness, we hang out sometimes.” Nikki pulls him closer so their cheek to cheek, Max watches as her eyes sparkle and slowly backs up so he’s sitting down again. 

“So whats she doing with a guy like Nurf?” Max looks at Neil who simply shrugs. 

“Who knows? I’m guessing she likes his ‘complexity’.” Neil rolls his eyes and closes up the notebook, stuffing it in his bag, Max stares at it wondering what other kind of information he could get out of that book. “So Max,” he looks up, “what kind of classes are you taking?”

“Basic stuff,” he shrugs, “David made me take at least one AP class though.”

“Really? Which class?” Neil’s are the widest Max has ever seen them, definite nerd. 

“AP Calc with McGreggor.” 

“That’s my next class.” Neil’s voice enthusiastic, the bell rings above them, Harrison wakes up from a nap he had apparently been taking. “Do you want to walk together?”

“Why not.” They all pick up their trays and head to the trash can.

“See you nerds later.” Nikki runs off in the opposite direction dragging Harrison with her, Nerris follows behind.

“So,” Max shrugs his bag up further on his shoulder, “what’re you two in music class for?”

“The keys,” Neil plays them in the air, “Nikki play’s the drums.” Max looks up at him. 

“Is that a thing?” Neil’s face flushes to a deep red. 

“N-No! No!” Max watches amused as Neil tries to explain himself. “I’m not, she’s, we’re not like that.”

“Right.” Max grins as they keep walking. 

“No seriously!” Neil stops him in the middle of the hall. “We’re step siblings.” He whispers to the boy, looking around to see if anyones around. 

“Oh,” Max says simply, then furrows his eyebrows, “well why wouldn’t you just say that?” Neil sighs and lets them continue walking. 

“I’m kinda embarrassed about it.” They near the classroom. “Our parents are both kinda sucky, but it's not like I'm embarrassed of Nikki, just the fact that two weirdos both occupy the same house I guess.” 

“I get what you mean, just maybe in a different way.” They give each other quicks smiles before entering the classroom.

The day goes by and Max later finds himself in study hall with Nikki, she sits a few seat behind him in the next row, she throws him a note saying, ‘Study Buddies for life!’, Max looked at the note and smiled back at her,she sent him a small wave. Other than the two classes and lunch Max is by himself, which he doesn’t find too bothersome, he get’s the work done fast and doesn’t talk to anyone, just listening in on who will need an A and who might need some papers done. At the end of the day Max heads to the music department, the sign’s turning him around a few times but he makes it there just fine. They have six practice rooms all alongside each other, although it seems to keep a lot of the noise in, Max files that information away, although he doubts he’ll need it anymore. As he passes by one of the practice rooms he catches sight of brown curls and green hair, he looks in to see, Nikki, Neil, and Ered, their playing and then Neil and Ered just stop and Nikki goes off on a solo and from what he can make out it’s pretty good, her movements are fast and her face is completely focused, it’s something that’s not common for her face to do. Max walks past letting the tune ring in his ear as he walks into the little office David had been provided with. 

“Nice space.” Max says with no emotion,David turns around from hanging some photo’s up to look at him. 

“It’s nice to have a space to put everything instead of the same room, also not to share a space with the choir teacher.” David grabs his bag off the swivel chair. “Ready to go?” 

“Please.” Max rolls his eyes as they walk out of the office to leave the school. 

“So how was school?” They walk together down the hall and towards the side doors.

“Saw the people from the ‘Pizza Incident’.” Max puts air quotes around the last two words. “Their names are Nikki, Neil, and Harrison,I also met their other friend Nerris at lunch today.”

“That’s fantastic!” David exclaims as they get in the car. “First day and you already have friends.” Max let’s out a sigh. 

“How was your day.” Max puts on his seatbelt. 

That keeps David busy for most of the car ride home as he talks about the different classes he got to teach that day, once their home Max heads directly to his room, too exhausted from having to talk to teachers for most of the day. He takes out his phone to look at the messages he’s received from Sasha, there were a lot, taking in a deep breath Max presses the call button. 

“Max what the fuck?” Her voice is angry. “You ignore me for two day’s? What’s your damage.”

“Calm down princess it’s not like I’m your boyfriend.” Max rolls his eyes at the phone, taking out The Notebook, he convinced Neil to let him borrow it so he could get to know the school better.

“That’s besides the point,” she grumbles out, “I wanted to talk to you about Nikki.” Max stops his flipping of pages to look at his phone. 

“Yeah what about her?” He asks suspiciously. 

“So,” he hears her shuffle around on the other end, “Nikki and I went to the same middle school, and basically she was the weirdest girl I had ever met, she joined the flower scout, which was the name of our girl scouts troop, anyway every year we played a prank on the new girls to join, so when we pulled it on Nikki, she didn’t seem to know how to take a joke, so then she told on the rest of the flower scouts and me, got us in all trouble and it was so stupid, but basically she got me grounded for two months and got the flower scouts disbanded.” Sasha finishes with an angry huff, Max however had found a page headed  **‘IDIOTS’** , and began to write the names down on a separate piece of paper. 

“That sounds kind of fucked up on your part, not gonna lie.” Max says plainly shutting the notebook and sticking it back in his bag. 

“You're missing the point Max,” Sasha groans out, “she basically ruined my and a bunch of other girls middle school experience, because a bunch of parents found out and didn’t want us anywhere near their kids.”

“So?” Max leans back in his chair. “What do you want me to do about it?” His voice annoyed that he had to listen to the stupid story in the first place. 

“Well,” her voice comes in sweetly, “just ya know toy with her a little, get to know her embarrassing secrets and everything, maybe get her to sleep with you then you ignore her!” Her voice turns excited as she describes the different types of mental torture. 

“What?” Max scoffs. “Sasha I’m not going to sleep with her.” He throws his free hand up in disbelief. 

“Oh c’mon Max it’s a free lay, no guy can resist that.” 

“Well that’s what I thought you were for.” He smirks at her huff of air. 

“Ha, ha, very funny.” Max can hear her sneer over the phone. “Seriously though, she deserves to be messed with.”

“I don’t know.” Max sighs. “I’ll text you.” They say their goodbyes and hang up. 

Max stares at the desk in front of himself, he had options here, he could either stay friends with Nikki and be bored for most of the year, or he could be friends with Nikki and find out everything about her, get close to her friends and family and hear all the embarrassing things they have to say about her and feed it all to Sasha, and have something to do with his year.

He knew what the right thing to do was, he knew that doing what Sasha wanted to do was a bad idea and he had no reason of his own to do it, but the idea swirls in his head, and for some reason it wouldn’t get out of his head. Eating dinner, doing homework and getting ready for bed, it still wouldn’t leave his train of thought, was he really that big of an asshole that he thought messing with some girl he just met was really a good idea? No, Yes. He couldn’t decide, but he laid in bed that night and he couldn’t sleep until he sent Sasha a text. 

**‘I’m in.’**

**‘Perfect ;)’**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yikes Max
> 
>  Not edited
> 
> Thanks for reading!


	4. Football Game

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Max goes to a football game and has no school spirit

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you enjoy this  
> There's some Nikki and Max moments  
> There's also a Sasha and Max moment, although not as big

Max feels his stomach twist as he nears the lunch table then next day, could he do this? Is this who he was now? Someone that just ruins people’s lives? He’s done bad things before, but he thinks this will take the most fucked up piece of cake. 

“Your crazy.” Nikki leans back in her seat looking at Harrison, Max sits down cautiously. “Sure we don’t win every sporting event, but we can beat a bunch of pansy’s at football.”

“Oh please,” Neil rolls his eyes and sets his book down, “our football team hasn’t won a game since sophomore year.”

“He’s got a point ya know.” Nerris says although she doesn’t look as invested in the conversation, Harrison nods in agreement. 

“Ok, but Stevenson High School?” Nikki looks at them with a bored face. “C’mon, I heard their team sucks.” Max smirks. 

“I don’t know about that Nik,” the lunch table looks at him, “that was my last school and we at least won one game a season.” He puts his arm up on the table, nikki narrows her eyes at him. 

“Ok wise guy,” she leans forward, “Wanna bet?”

“Yeah,” he also leans forward with a smirk, “if you’re ready to lose.” He states matter of factly. 

“Oh it’s on,” Nikki grins, “loser has to buy the winner frozen yogurt.”

“What if I don’t want frozen yogurt?”

“Won’t matter when you lose.”

The two smile at each other before reaching out their hands for a handshake,the others at the table watch with bewildered stares, they both sit back down in their seats. 

“You two are fucking nuts.” Neil looks between the two, Max looks up at him. 

“So did you want the notebook back or not.” Neil reaches his hand out expectantly, Max reaches into his bag and hands it to him. 

“Was it helpful at all?” Neil puts it away in his bag. 

“Yeah,” Max thinks back to the list of kids he has in his bag, “it was pretty helpful.” He shrugs. “So when’s this game?” 

“Next week friday,” Nerris says plainly, “it’s homecoming week, which also means spirit week, which also means Space Kid dressed in a platypus suit for most of the week.”

“A platypus?” Max looks around the table for answers, Harrison speaks up.

“It’s our school mascot, our motto is Campbell High Playties.” He rolls his eyes at the motto and goes back to picking at his food. 

“But we the students have decided on the pussies.” Neil says proudly. “I came up with it”

“Pussies for life.” Ered says as she passes by, the four at the table raise a fist.

Max lets himself to laugh a little then returns to eating, lunch continues on as the table talks about classes and teachers, Max giving Nikki extra attention while speaking, getting to know her. When lunch ends he gives Nikki a smile, which she seems taken back by, but she returns it, Harrison pulls her along. When in his different classes Max goes about checking people off the list he’s copied down asking if they want any extra “help” or any “tutoring” almost all say yes,others say they’ll have to think about it, but promise not to snitch. When Max gets to study hall he makes sure to take the seat behind Nikki’s, she smiles at him when he sits down, she begins to take out her things, he reaches his hand forward and gives her hair a light tug, she turns around to looks at him. 

“Is that natural?” Max asks gesturing towards her hair, she touches the top of her head and bringing it down to the rest of her hair before responding.

“Yep.” She says enthusiastically. “It’s a little weird, but it’s different.” she shrugs, her smile unfading.

“Well  _ I _ ,” Max brings his hand to his chest for emphasis, “think it’s cute.” The bell rings above them, he watches as her cheeks begin to flush red, but she just turns around with an amused eye roll, Max leans back in his chair as he smirks at the back of her head. 

The rest of the class time he’s silent, but does catch Nikki looking back at him a couple of times, which he finds is good progress. 

Time goes by and honestly Max finds himself to be doing his little “task” with ease, Nikki is a very likable person, she was easy to talk to. Max would ask her questions and she'd answer them, but only simple questions like favorite color, what're your hobbies, school stuff and what not, nothing ever really serious or anything that could give away anything embarrassing or incriminating. Max tries with Neil and honestly when he hangs out with him Nikki doesn’t come up a lot and it’s just them being friends and Max let’s himself get lost in that feeling of friendship, it’s nice, despite the fact that he’s using Neil to infiltrate Nikki, she comes up a few times, but nothing really comes of it. Sasha does text and call him to find out what he’s found out and she is not happy with the results.

_ “What the hell Max?  I want dirty details and you give me rainbows and puppies, what gives?” _

_ To which he responded with. _

_ “Sorry sasha, some people aren’t complete fuck ups, like a certain fuck up I know.” _

_ Which then continued into a fight, which then ended with phone sex, which was usually what happened when they fought.  _

Friday rolls around and everybody’s decked out in green and white, Nikki had the colors in face paint under her eyes, and an oversized varsity jacket, Neil also had the face paint and had on a green mathletes shirt, Harrison wearing a green top hat and vest, with matching shades, Nerris wearing a seniors shirt and a white clip in her hair. Max on the other hand had thought that writing pussy in green marker and giving it shadow with whiteout was a sufficient amount of spirit. 

“Where’s your spirit?” Nikki asks in disbelief, Max looks up. 

He had decided sitting behind Nikki and bothering her during study hall was better than sitting up front bored. 

“I showed you already.” Max lifts his hand up for her to read again, she nearly busted a gut at lunch, but now she’s putting his hand down.

“Ok, but when you go to the game tonight you’re at least going to wear some sort of school spirit right?” She looks at him expectantly. 

“I think you’re confusing me for a different type of student.” He says deadpan, then goes back to looking at his phone. 

Max thinks she’s given up on him when she goes digging into her bag, for what he assumes is her homework, but is instead surprised when he feels a hand on his face, he looks up immediately. Nikki’s kneeling on her chair to lean over the back of her chair and onto his desk, her elbows have her propped up as she’s looking up at max a pallet of face paint in one hand and the other, her finger is sweeping across his face applying green to one side. Max watches mesmerized as she continues on the other side with a face that is not exactly aware of how close she is to his face and how her lips part and how long her eyelashes were and yet he couldn’t seem to find a trace of mascara clumping anywhere. She sits back on her legs with a contented sigh, he watches her with furrowed eyebrows confused at the warm feeling growing in his stomach then rising slowly. 

“That’s better.” She sighs out, then turns around to sit in her seat properly and begins to do her work as if nothing had happened.

Because nothing did happen, she just put paint on his face, then why were his cheeks warm, Max glares at the back of her head before putting his face in his arms on the desk, careful not to smudge the face paint on his hoodie. 

David and Max arrive early to the game, because David has to direct the band and get a few things set up before they get on the bleachers, so Max is sitting by himself for a while before he gets a text. 

**‘We just got to the stadium’** It’s Nikki.  **‘You here yet?’**

**‘Already here, on the way left when you walk in’** He sends the text and waits. 

Max isn’t surprised when he’s tackled down onto the bench, by not one, but three people, he looks up to see Nikki, Neil, and Nerris  on top of him, they're all smiling. 

“What the fuck guys?” Max doesn’t have any real bite to his words as they get up off of him, Harrison looks at them amused taking a seat a bleacher below. 

“Game day is the best time to get hyped.” Nerris’ smile stays, probably the longest he’s seen her smile. “Also the only time I embrace being human.”

“Yeah, that and the cheerleaders also have the best outfits.” Neil gives him a little nudge, he takes the seat next to Max.

“The ladies really love magic tricks.” Harrison adds leaning back to join the conversation.

“Pervs.” Nikki scoffs with a little laugh as she walks around them to sit in front of Max. 

“The male species is one of the worst offenders.” Nerris adds sitting next to Max.

The stadium fills with people, the sound growing so much that they all have to huddle together to hear one another, the other side of the field is covered in gold and white. The game starts with an uproar of cheers, Max stays sitting when the gang starts to stand on the seats of the bleachers, that is until Nikki and Neil grab him by his hoodie and lift him onto his feet, he doesn’t protest, just starts to cheer and holler along with the rest of the crowd. As the game proceeds Nikki and Max keep a watchful eye on the field and the score, Nikki would shout with protest whenever they called a foul that she found complete bullshit, though the score wasn’t so much in Max’s favor. So he’d usually yell out whenever the other team would fumble or just barely make it to the end zone. By halftime the score was a tied. 

“What do you say Maxie pad?” He looks down at Nikki, she backs up a bit and lays her head on his lap. “Ready to give up hope.” Nikki smirks, he narrows his eyes at her half heartedly before leaning down so their eye to eye. 

“No way buttercup,” He smirks back at her, “I’m in it to win it, besides I think we have a chance.” Max leans back again.

“Puh-lease,” she turns around she puts her crossed arms onto his knees and sets her head on top of them, “you’re team was down most of the time and  _ just  _ now was able to pull through.” 

“That means they’ll have enough energy to slaughter in the last half.” He says in a matter of fact tone. 

Nikki’s face scrunches up at him, and he makes the same face back and they both give a little laugh before Harrison calls to Nikki to get her attention, she responds immediately and get’s into a conversation with him, leaving Max’s lap cold, he stares after her for a second, then see’s Neil looking at him. 

“What?” Max asks in a somewhat annoyed tone, due to the fact that Neil had caught him staring

“Nothing, nothing.” Neil says with an amused smile and goes back to looking out at the field again watching the band perform.

Max’s face turns into an angry pout, but he goes back to looking out at the field, his face turns confused as he feels his phone vibrate in his pocket, he looks around, knowing it’s not David and everyone else he knew was right in front of him, he brings his phone out of his pocket out assuming it’s someone who wants homework done. 

**‘Get under the bleachers’** Sasha?

**‘Are you at the game?’** He watches the screen with a raised eyebrow.

**‘Yes idiot, now get under the bleachers’** Max looks around the bleachers and then at his friends. 

“I’ll be back.” He says to no one in particular, although he does get some nods of understanding. 

Max makes his way to the back of the bleachers, once he’s under there he doesn’t see anything, so he heads further in, light coming in from the cracks of the seats, then he see’s her, she’s standing against a support beam, her arms are crossed, her face is unamused in short, and she’s wearing a shiny golden jacket. He walks closer, keeping his hands in his pockets, until their a foot away, her facial expression never changing, he matches his face to hers. 

“What?” He asks after a while, his voice annoyed.

She grabs him by the front of his hoodie and pulls him close and kisses him, she puts her hands on his neck and his hands immediately find her waist. She continues to lean against the beam and holding him close, he lets her kiss him and lets himself get sucked into it as she deepens it. Max leans one hand against the wall, the other on Sasha’s back, he can feel the way it archs when he tangles his hand in her hair. She pulls back slightly giving him a lingering kiss, they stand in their same position, faces only apart this time and panting for air. 

“So,” Max has his eye’s closed still, “what did you want to talk about?” He looks at her after opening his eyes, her face now a little more pleased. 

“Just wanted to know how progress was going?” Sasha shoves him away a bit, he ignores the sting that he’s so used to. 

Max shrugs. “I think it’s going to take longer than we thought.” He sticks his hands in his pocket. “I’m going to have to get closer to her.”

“I don’t know,” Sasha crosses her arms shrugging, “you guys seem pretty close already.” She raises an eyebrow. 

“What’re you talking about?” He looks over at her confused. 

“She was basically all over you just now.” Sasha sticks out her tongue in disgust with a roll of her eyes she turns away to examine her nails. 

“Were you spying on me?” Max watches her stop her movements, he smirks. “Sasha,” his voice turns teasing, “are you jealous?” She turns around immediately.

“Most definitely not.” She nearly exclaims. 

She was though, how could she put into words how she felt without saying the truth, Max had always been there for her, he was her partner in crime, he’d always help her out if there was some creep that came, he’d put his arm around her and gave the dude a glare and they’d leave without a word, but then he’d let go and go back to what he was doing. Max didn’t like to cuddle or laugh or just casually joke around, but there he was with Nikki, the one person Sasha couldn’t stand and she had brought out this entirely different side to Max, a side she never got to meet. They walk out from under the bleachers and into the crowded space, it’s quiet between them as Max walks Sasha to the gate that leads back to her car. 

“See you later Greenwood.” Sasha waves lazily over her shoulder.

“See ya.” Max stands watching after her for a little bit before turning back, when he goes to head up back up to the bleachers, he see’s Neil standing at the top of the stairs looking where Sasha and him had just been. “Hey Neil.” Max greets. 

“How do you know Sasha?” Max looks at him with a raised eyebrow. 

“We went to the same school,” he gestures to the football game, “how do you know her?”

“Tabii,” Neil shudders just the tiniest bit looking out again, “and something happened with Nikki, but we don’t talk about that.” He looks back at Max with a questioning face. “Looks like you guys were talking about something serious.” Max immediately shakes his head.

“Nope, just catching up.” Max goes up the rest of the steps and moving past Neil to get back to their seats. 

 

“So how does failure taste.” Nikki sticks her spoonful of frozen yogurt in her mouth.

“Like cookie dough and disappointment.” Max glares down at his empty cup of deliciousness, he had finished his, but Nikki was taking her sweet time as they walked back to the school.

The score was low on both ends, showing that both schools were equally sucky, but in the end it was Campbell that had won by just one point. Nikki had celebrated like the others by jumping up, but then she turned around and started rubbing it in his face,then the rest of the group started to. The two continue walking along in comfortable silence as they near the school, Nikki speaks up.

“So homecomings tomorrow,” Max waits for her to continue, “are you going?” He looks over at her, she looks, nervous.

“I wasn’t planning on it, but I guess I might show up.” He shrugs and throws his container away in a nearby trashcan.

“Well maybe you should, and maybe you should come to Neil and my building for pictures,” Nikki looks over at him briefly, “ya know, if you are coming.” She puts another spoonful in her mouth, Max lets a little smile through. 

“Yeah,” He looks forward to see Neil waiting by the gate talking to Nerris, “I might show up.” Nikki smiles.

“Great, I’ll let my mom know.” Max stops walking to look at her fully, she turns back to look at him noticing he had stopped walking. “What?” she asks amused.

Max steps forward so there’s barely any space left, Nikki’s smile drops into somewhat surprise as Max brings his hand up to hold the side of her face, he looks between her eyes and his thumb sweeps closely to the side of her mouth,she tenses up as he smirks down at her. He brings his hand up to his face and licks his thumb. 

“You were right,” Nikki keeps standing as Max starts to walk away, “their strawberry yogurt is the best.” Max let’s out a laugh when he feel’s a punch on his shoulder. 

“Your such an ass.” Nikki grumbles out, he takes a side glance to see her blushing, he smiles to himself. 

When they make it to Neil and Nerris they share their goodbyes and get into the car and Neil drives away, Max stares after the car for a moment before going off to find David so he could go home and later ask how ties work. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Max you ass 
> 
> But yeah their going to homecoming in the next chapter, and things get  
> Interesting


	5. Homecoming and After

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They go to homecoming and an after party at Ered's  
> And there is most definitely not going to be slow dancing and seven minutes in heaven, cause how cliche and juvenile would that be

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> HA Ha ha  
> I'm so tired  
> Hope you enjoy this way too long chapter that I stayed up forever to write, cause I guess I was excited to write it.  
> Also two main songs for this chapter Wicked Ones, Dorothy and They dance to Outlaws, David Lambert

“Bring it around once, then again, then bring it up and under, then you just tighten it.” David finishes up with a smile, he looks up at Max’s face, it looks frustrated. “You doing okay?” 

“What do you mean.” Max tugs on the knot and loosens up the tie.

“You’ve been a little distracted lately, and a lot more distant than usual.” He looks up to see David’s face which holds a serious face that Max doesn’t see all that often. 

“I’m fine,” Max flips the collar down on his shirt, “just new school, new people.” He walks around David to reach his coat for the evening. 

David doesn’t say anything and just observes him with pursed lips, Max turns around and stretches his arms to the side,as if to present himself.

“So,” Max then sticks his hands in his pants pockets, “how do I look?” 

“Like your ready to dance.” David gives him a defeated smile.

They both walk out of Max’s room, and down the small hall to the living room where Gwen sits on the couch, a book in hand, she looks up when she hears their footsteps, she smiles. 

“Well, well,” Gwen stands up going over to look at Max fully, “you clean up good, it really is such a rare occasion that we get to see you dressed up.” She looks over Max’s shoulder to see David’s face, she sighs and looks back at Max with a half smile, she grabs him by the shoulders. “You be good tonight.”

“Yeah, yeah.” He rolls his eyes, but smiles nonetheless.

“You two stand together I want to get pictures.” David speaks out, Max turns around and Gwen puts her arm around his shoulder as he stands there with his hands in his pockets.

Max stands patiently as they take pictures and switch off taking turns taking pictures with him and as they set up a timer so they could all take pictures together, the process is long and unnecessary, but he stands through it. When they're finished they hand him off the keys and tell him to drive sae and to be back by at least 12, knowing their might be some after party he was going to attend, so they gave him some time to do it. He leaves the apartment and drives to Nikki and Neils building, already exhausted thinking about the pictures he was going to have to take and sit through. Max texts Nikki letting her know he’s here.

**‘Floor 5, door 10B’**

Max takes in a deep breath before stepping out of the car, he walks in and takes the elevator up and when he gets to the door he hears a laughter and talking on the other side, he knocks it quiet downs a bit, but not entirely. 

“I’ll get it.” He hears someone say, who he guesses is Nikki, as they continue talking coming to the door.

When the door opens it reveals a still talking Nikki, Max take’s in her appearance while she’s distracted, her hair is in soft curls that bounce when she talks, her  [ dress ](http://picture-cdn.wheretoget.it/ca1n4b-l-610x610-dress-purple-dress-purple-black-lace-sleeveless-black-lace-dress-lace-dress-cute-cutedress-adorable-little-black-dress-prom-dress-violet-beautiful-perfect-strapless-short-dark-blac.jpg) is a dark purple all lace, sleeveless dress, that goes above her knees and poofs out just a bit, it makes her hair stand out and when she turns to look at him, Max lets out a breath of air, her face done up making her eye’s pop out. She looks him up and down taking in his appearance, it’s simple, white dress shirt, black tie, unbuttoned coat, and pants, Nikki bites her bottom lip, which is covered in a light pink gloss. They both stand looking at each other up and down, ignoring the noise inside, Max looks down at her legs and down to her feet, the side of his mouth quirks up in amusement, he looks at her with a raised eyebrow. 

“Nice shoes.” Nikki blinks, surprised at his voice, then looks down to see her black converse that cover her feet. 

“I wouldn’t want to be too uncomfortable.” She looks up with a smile. “Come inside we were about to take pictures.” Nikki turns around and walks inside, Max follows her, closing the door behind him. 

There’s a few extra people than Max had thought there would be, he recognized who they were from the notebook and seeing them around, there was Neil, Nikki, Harrison, Nerris, Space Kid, Preston and of course Max. The two ‘new’ people look at Max, he offers a wave, Space Kid is first to act.

“Hey I know you,” he says, sounding a little congested, “you’re in my science class.” Max stares at him for a bit, then a look of recognition comes across his face.

“Oh yeah.” Max gives a slight smile. “Good to see you man.” He offers a fist bump, Space Kid returns it, he looks over at Preston. “You’re Preston right?” Max questions.

“Yes,” Preston keeps his nose in the air, “Max?” He nods. Preston then goes back to talking to Space Kid. 

“Alright then.” Max says to himself and walks over to where Neil is talking to Nerris.

He doesn’t take part in the conversation, he just waits for pictures to start, that and he didn’t see Nikki anywhere so he couldn’t talk to her. After a minute Nikki emerges with what looks like a milf version of herself and what must be Neil’s dad, Nikki’s face not very amused. But they call attention and get ready for pictures as a group, they all stand together and no one doesn’t say anything when Max doesn’t smile. They stand all together, then just the guys, then just the two girls, then as a group again, but this time with silly faces. Then something happened that Max wasn’t expecting, Harrison putting a corsage on Nikki’s wrist and Nikki sticking a boutonniere in Harrison’s coat pocket and then them taking pictures together, Max didn’t remember there being moment where Harrison asked her and she was over enthusiastic about her answer, which apparently was yes? Max narrows his eyes at the two, he feels something bubble low in his gut, but decides to ignore it. Once their finished taking pictures, they all go to the cars they came in, Nikki and Neil catching a ride with a suddenly grumpy Max, Neil takes the front seat. The group arrives right before they close the doors.

Dancing, and dancing, water, dancing, sweating, more dancing, Max watches from the sidelines as the process continues, he hasn’t danced yet, but the heat from all the bodies in the enclosed space has him holding his jacket and rolling up his sleeves. He watches from his spot on the wall as Space Kid, Preston, and Neil dance by side stepping, but joking around as they do it, Nerris dances by herself, and then there’s Nikki and Harrison, they're doing a sort of swing dance and he spins her around a lot, and when their not doing that, Nikki’s dancing like nobody’s watching and Max could give a ratsass about how Harrison’s dancing. When Nikki goes for another water break, she walks over to Max first, he gets a good look at her, she’s covered in sweat and her hair, no longer in curls, now more in waves, sticks to her forehead and shoulders, and her face is flushed, Max’s stomach drops, but he keeps his same neutral face as she leans against the wall next to him.

“How’s it going wallflower?” Nikki pants out, still exhausted from dancing, she looks at him with half lidded eyes, Max coughs out the lump in throat. 

“Fine,” He looks out at the dance floor Harrison now dancing with the rest of the guys, “how’s dancing with houdini over there.” Nikki gives him a nudge with her elbow at the nickname.

“Good.” She says simply, they both stand in silence, Nikki looking out at Nerris. “Why don’t you go ask Nerris to dance?” 

“Because she probably doesn’t dance the way I do.” Max states with a shrug of his shoulders. 

“Oh yeah and how’s that?” Nikki looks at him with a smirk, leaning in, he really couldn’t handle her like this, but he keeps himself composed. 

“Dirty.” He smirks back with a low voice, he leans in so their close, she licks her lips and takes a step back.

“Then you don’t know Nerris.” She winks. “You might as well do it, because the other three losers sure as hell won’t” Nikki calls over her shoulder as she walks over to the refreshments table. 

Max watches her leave then back at Nerris, and then really takes in her dancing, she wasn’t doing much, but she could move fluidly, her dress was more like a tight romper with a see through skirt attached, it’s a light green with a floral print, the skirt accentuating her movements. He decides it’s better then standing to the side watching everyone else have fun, after setting his coat down on a chair, he walks over to her and taps on her shoulder, she turns to look at him, he notices the cuffs she’s wearing on her ears to give herself shiny looking elf ears, he smiles at her. 

“Nice cuffs,” Nerris touches her ears lightly, “do you want to dance?” She looks at him for a moment before shrugging. 

“Why not.” She smiles up at him, metal shines up at him, but he doesn’t mind.

They start out facing each other, Nerris takes one of Max’s hands and continues her movements of swinging her hips back and forth, he watches her as he starts to move back and forth, after a little bit he spins her around, so that her back’s against his front, she doesn’t seem to mind though and gets the hint. She moves against him and he follows her hips with his own, they move together in a fluid motion, Nerris brings her hand up to hold onto the back of his neck as to bring them closer together, Max brings his hands a little more towards her stomach as he keeps his grip on her hips, their group of friends watch in surprise as probably the two quietest in their group grind against each other. Nerris keeps her head to the side, Max rests his head next to hers, he looks out at their friends, their mostly in shock, but when he catches sight of Nikki, her jaw is clenched and her arms are crossed, although she tries to keep any negative emotion from her face, he smirks when they make eye contact and then turns Nerris around so their face to face. Now their chest to chest, legs between each other, Nerris now has both hands on his neck, Max’s hands then go to her lower back, they both have smug faces on, Nerris looks up at Max. 

“This is fun.” Max says, she nods. 

“Totally,” She leans closer in, “ya know a lot of guys here can’t dance this well, it’s nice to have someone with experience.” Her lisp comes through, which surprises him, especially when their dancing like this. “That and this will also help me get loads more offers.” Max laughs a bit at the last comment. 

“They’ll all come crawling now.” Max jokes, she laughs, the song ends and they separate and they go back to acting like nothing happened and they didn’t just grind on each other.

Nerris does get more dance offers after their little performance, she gets her first offer immediately after, she turns to look at him with a thumbs up and a wink, Max goes to walk back to his spot on the wall, hands in his pockets, but is stopped by Nikki grabbing his sleeve.

“What was that?” She asks, no definite emotion in her voice. 

“Dancing,” Max shrugs, “that’s what you wanted me to do right?” Max raises an eyebrow at her, she huffs.

“Yeah, but I didn’t think you meant actual dirty dancing.” Nikki says frustratedly.

“Does it matter?” He asks taking one of his hands out of his pocket, although his voice is amused with a hint of teasing, she narrows her eyes at him. 

“It doesn’t.” Her tone is the best she could manage for a non caring one, she crosses her arms and walks back over to where Harrison is and begins to dance with him again, Max lets out a frustrated sigh. 

The rest of the night is the same, Nerris at some point comes to ask for another dance, stating that she needs to refresh the student bodies memories of how great she was at dancing, he agreed with a shrug and they danced and again he caught Nikki staring, this time he didn’t acknowledge, and when they finished she was probably more annoyed than before. So what was her revenge to him? Making him watch her and Harrison slow dance, watch as they hold their hands together and his hand on her waist and her hand on his shoulder, they swayed peacefully to the music, Nikki resting her head against the boy’s chest. He didn’t know why he cared so much, he doesn’t care about anything, but then there’s Nikki, this awesome person, who can make anyone laugh, has the best attitude, and is just genuinely a good person, Max just can’t seem to wrap his head around it. Max doesn’t want feelings for Nikki, he’s not supposed to, because feelings are a rare thing that he’s found he doesn’t have, and if he likes Nikki then his situation gets more complicated. First the fact that he’ll be questioning his existence, second there’s Sasha, now she doesn’t feel either, at least from past experiences, he doesn’t think she feels, but if she happened to catch wind or even think that Max might be having a warm chest, then she could ultimately ruin his life, because she didn’t care, she just wanted what she wanted, she’d do anything for it, Max isn’t all that concerned about his own well being, mostly due to the fact that he doesn’t give a shit, but more of David’s. She knew what he did for students, she was one of them, she had proof, and if she wanted to she could go straight to the school board and have him expelled, and possibly have David lose his job, which would most likely break David, and Max couldn’t do that to him. So no, he wasn’t catching feelings for Nikki, but since being friends was going too slow, he decided they were going to have to move forward. There’s more dancing and more Nikki and Harrison, when the next slow song comes on, he doesn’t see Harrison anywhere so he makes his way to Nikki and taps her shoulder, she turns to look at him, her arms crossed.

“Yes?” She asks with raised brows. 

“Let’s dance.” He says grabbing her arms and gently putting them over his shoulders and then sets his hands on her waist. 

“You didn’t give me much of a chance to answer.” Nikki says as they begin to sway. 

“Well I didn’t need to hear a no,” he looks down at her with an amused face, “I don’t think my ego could take the hit.” She giggles at that and looks down at her feet. 

_ Love love love is my crime. _

_ So baby come catch me and let's do the time _

They sway together in silence, Max keeps looking down at her, she looks everywhere except him, her cheeks a bit flushed, he brings her closer so their chest to chest she looks up at him.

_ If you're still way over there, maybe slide on in by my side, _

_ 'Cause I'm just an outlaw, wanted if you want me. _

_ I love you everyday and every night _

“Ya know you’re not that bad of dancer.” Max says. “Even if we are just swaying.” they both laugh.

“And your not so bad yourself when you’re not grinding up on Nerris.” Max feels the warmth start in his ears, but he ignores it, and looks around to see Neil and Nerris slow dancing like middle schoolers and laughing, while Harrison talks to Space Kid and Preston. 

Max looks back down to see Nikki still looking at him, her hot pink eyes take him by surprise and his face softens. 

_ With your piercing eyes and devilish charm _

Time isn’t real as they move together and they don’t stop looking in each others eyes, Nikki keeps a tight hold on Max’s neck, he does the same for her, his hands linked together behind her, almost as if he were to let go he would float away, it feels like forever, their dancing. They lose track of each other and lean into each other their foreheads pressed together. 

_ If you're still way over there, maybe slide on in by my side, _

_ 'Cause I'm just an outlaw, wanted if you want me. _

_ I'm just an outlaw, wanted if you want me. _

_ I love you everyday and every night. _

They don’t move apart after the music stops, they just stand together, they do separate though when they hear the loudness of the bass come in from the next song, they jump apart. Harrison is right there when they pull apart and takes Nikki by the hand and eases her into dancing, she looks a bit dazed, but eventually gets into it.

Max is sitting on the sidelines again, he’s not alone for long though before he is joined by Ered, she leans against the wall her foot up against it with crossed arms, she wears a shiny silver skin tight dress with a leather jacket on top, her hair is pulled back in a high ponytail. She looks over at him, he nods at her.

“I saw you dancing earlier.” She says simply, he looks at her waiting for more explanation. “I also know your friends with Nikki and Neil, so I think you’re pretty cool,” Ered’s tone is laid back, “you should come to my after party and bring your group, Nikki knows where I live.” And like that she pushes herself off the wall and goes back into the crowd of dancing people.

By the end of the six teens all meet up and begin to exit the school together talking and laughing, as they reach their vehicles Max stops them.

“Oh yeah,” they all look over at him, “Ered came up to me earlier and said we’re all invited to her house for an after party.” Nikki runs up to him, taking ahold of his shoulders, shaking him a bit. 

“Are you serious?” She looks up at him with wide eyebrows.

“Dead serious.” Max takes his hand out of his pocket to tap her nose. “And she said you know how to get there.” Nikki’s smile extends.

She shoves everyone into their respective cars and sits up front so she could direct Max in the right direction, the other car following behind. When they arrive there are cars that fill up the driveway and the block, Max parks across the street and Nikki nearly jumps out of the car, she drags Max and Neil along by their arms, they both leave their jackets in the car. Entering the house is loud and Max is pretty sure most of the school is there, he wonders if they would’ve ended up here after the dance anyway. Ered greets them at the door and like a good hostess shows them around the house.

“Kitchen has all the drinks and help yourselves to whatever’s in the fridge,” she gestures in the general direction, then moves her hand to the upstairs, “There’s one restroom down here and two upstairs.” Ered looks over her shoulder to smirk at the small group. “There’s also some vacant rooms up there too.” She winks and turns back around, they all look between each other with wide eyes. “Enjoy yourselves dudes.” Then  she’s gone.

They all stand together for a moment before they disperse, Nikki immediately going into the living room where all the dancing is she begins to jump up and down, Neil and Max watch from a distance and decide on standing off to the side to talk.

“Nikki’s cool.” Max states, Neil looks over at him amused.

“Yeah,” he nudges him, “she thinks you’re pretty cool too.” Max looks over at him with slight smile and shrugs.

“She has a right to think so.” The two boys laugh as they continue talking.

Eventually Neil finds someone from one of his classes that he recognizes and begins to talk to them, after losing sight of Nikki Max goes off on his own to explore the house, he finds himself outside, the night air cools him down, it’s a sign of summer ending. He walks up to a group of kids he doesn’t know and asks to bum a smoke, they give him one and they start talking about what classes they're in and how they know Ered, small talk and what not, when Max finishes off his smoke he stomps it out and walks back into the warm house. He walks into the kitchen, deciding it better to show up to the apartment sober and being able to drive everyone back home as a safe decision, Max searches through the fridge for a soda. His ears perk up when he hears Nikki’s voice enter the kitchen, he turns around to see her laughing with some guy he doesn’t recognize. Max closes the fridge, soda in hand, as the guy offers to get her a water, they turn their attention to the fridge where Max stands. 

“Oh hey Max.” Nikki says enthusiastically. “This is Brody, he’s a junior and just moved here like you!” She gestures to Brody, he’s shorter than Max but an inch taller than Nikki. 

“Hi.” He offers a wave, but suddenly looking nervous, he makes his way to the fridge to grab the water for Nikki, Max watches closely as he opens the bottle, he reaches the bottle out to Nikki. “Here you go.” Max takes it before she can.

“Hey Brody,” Max says looking at the bottle then at the boy, “you wouldn’t mind drinking this first would you?” He asks with a neutral face as Brody begins to squirm, Nikki watches with furrowed eyebrows.

“No, but I wouldn’t want to spread germs.” Brody licks his lips,Nikki speaks out.

“No go ahead Brody,” she walks closer, “I want to see you drink it.” Her arms are crossed a glare on her face.

“Um,” he brings the bottle closer to himself and then throws it in the sink, “oops.” Brody shrugs, the two glare at him.

“Oops indeed.” Nikki gives him a straight punch to the face, hitting between his nose and his forehead, he falls back. “If I catch you pulling that shit again,” she kneels next to him on the ground, she tilts her head, “you’re dead.” She stands back up to see Max looking at her with a face of awe, she smiles at him before heading to the fridge for an untainted water bottle. 

“I think that’s the second time I’ve seen you knock someone on their ass.” Max turns to look at her with an admiring face.

“And I bet it’s not the last time.” Nikki takes gulp of water. “Thanks though, I didn’t even notice he was being shady.” She closes the cap on her water. 

“No problem I used to have to watch out for-” he stops mid sentence,  _ Sasha _ , is it better that she doesn’t know that he knows her, he’s silent for a moment, who’s looking after her at parties now, because it sure as hell wasn’t Tabii or Erin, he looks up at Nikki, he’s been quiet for too long. “A friend.” Max wraps up his sentence before taking a swig of his soda.

“No liquor for you?” Nikki asks, Max looks over at her, she’s leaning against the counter. 

“Nope,” he shakes his head, he inches his way closer to her, “I have to drive and I’m pretty sure Gwen would kill me if I came home with even a hint of alcohol on my breath.” He’s next to her now, shoulder to shoulder. 

“Is Gwen your mom?” Nikki asks, her head tilts a bit in a way that makes her look like a puppy. 

“Yeah.” Max answers shortly. “What about you?” He asks immediately. “Why no drinking.” She looks at him for a moment before answering.

“Athlete,” Nikki shugs with a light smile, “I technically shouldn’t even be at parties, but as long as I disappear before the cops show up I’ll be fine.” Max chuckles at her response. 

She takes a sip of water and then sets it down on the counter behind her and we she turns back to face Max, his face is right there, and he’s looking at her with desire in his eyes, her knees feel weak. Neither one of them say anything as they just look at each other in the small proximity, their breathing intermingles, Max brings his right hand up to the side of her face bringing her in closer, slowly they  both close their eyes as they lean in. And their lips almost touch, but there’s a crash from the next room and they jump apart and run into the next room to Brody laying on the floor next to a broken vase and Nurf standing over him looking ready to kill him, while Ered stands next to him with a glare on her face.

“Some people just don’t learn.” Nikki sighs out as the boy is picked up and tossed out of the house. 

“Perverts are really starting so young now a days.” Max states, she nods in agreement.

They both look at each other, Max smirks at her, but she turns away a blush on her face.

“Let’s go find a game to play.” Nikki rushes out of the kitchen, Max follows being tugged on by his sleeve.

“A game?” He asks confused as he catches up with Nikki’s speedwalking. 

“There’s always people playing some juvenile games at a highschool party.” Nikki says matter of factly as they walk up the stairs. 

After trying a few rooms, one of which contained dolph and another teen, who both looked very busy, they finally came across a room where there were a bunch of people sitting around playing what looks like never have I ever.

“Mind if we join.” Nikki asks, sitting down on the ground, Max follows suit. 

“Sure,” A girl with long brown hair says, “we were about to start a new game anyway.” She brings out a bottle and Max rolls his eyes, there was no way in hell he was going to play spin the bottle.

“Which game is this?” Nikki asks looking down at the bottle confused, he goes to explain, but is cut of by a guy with a bowl cut.

“Seven minutes in heaven,” Max looks at him with a scrunched face, he continues to explain, “One person spins the bottle, whoever the bottle points to, that’s who they go into heaven with in the closet.” He points across the hall to a closet.

“What do we do when they're in the closet.” Nikki looks at the closet then back to the people.

“We play never have I ever while we wait.” The girl with brown hair speaks up again. “Tiffany you first.” The girl next to Max spins the bottle. 

Max internally groans, he did not want to get stuck in the closet with any of the people in the room, except Nikki, but that was mostly because he had a job to do. They begin their game of never have I ever after starting the timer for the two in the closet, the questions are easy as they go around, Max putting his fingers down, until there’s only two left, Nikki still has five left still, he wants to lessen her odds when it’s his turn. 

“Never have I ever,” he examines her for a second before deciding, “done a sport in high school.” Max smirks at the glare she sends him, all except two peoples fingers go down.

“If that’s how you want to play.” Nikki mumbles before straightening herself out. “Never have I ever lost my virginity.” She says with so much confidence, Max is surprised, because he hadn’t thought she had known that, now he’s down to one finger.

Others in the room gasping as they find out about a friends new status on the virginity scale, Max just looks at Nikki. 

“How’d you know?” He asks bringing his hands down, she smirks at him. 

“You just have a certain aura about you that says,” her voice goes into a mocking man voice, “I fuck hella hoes.” Max laughs, she joins him, their cut off though by the ringing of the timer, they look down at the phone in the somewhat center of the circle. 

One of the party goers goes across the hall to retrieve the two in the closet, when they get back to the room, they look normal,  except maybe their hair is a bit out of sorts, but other than that they look like they did nothing more than gentle kissing. It was Max’s turn to spin the bottle, he looks around the room at his options, it could be worse, he shrugs and spins the bottle, it’s agonizingly slow as he watches it slow down, it directs itself next to Nikki, he looks up to see a person who is not a girl sitting on the receiving end, Max narrows his eyes.

“Ah Hell No.” He leans back hands up.

“Yeah not happening.” The other guy crosses his arms, Nikki looks between the two before sitting up straighter. 

“I’ll go.” She offers up, Max looks at her with a look of surprise.

“That works for me.” He says grabbing her hand and going into the closet, closing it tight. 

“Eager much.” Her voice comes through as their emerged into darkness, he can only make out a silhouette of her face, though he can see her eyes almost clearly.

“Just a bit.” Max leans in, making Nikki back up so her backs against the wall of the closet. “So,” he says bringing his hand up to lean against the side of her head on the wall, “you and Harrison huh?” He asks, he can see Nikki rolling her eyes in the dark. 

“No,” she crosses one of her arms over to hold her arm, “we’re just friends.” 

“Then what’s with this.” Gently Max reaches out and touches her corsage, keeping his hand on her wrist.

“He asked me at the game,” Nikki looks down at their hands, “if he had asked me out it would’ve been a different story.” She looks up at him, her eyes piercing him, he swallows and tries to shake it off. 

“What? Do you not like him? I can tell he likes you” A smirk stays on his face as she smiles a bit with a blush. 

“I do, and I know he does, but I’ve just had other distractions lately.” Slowly they lean into each other, Max’s hand slowly climbing up her arm, while Nikki’s other hand releases her arm and moves to his shoulder. 

“Distractions?” He asks with a chuckle, moving his body forward to get closer. 

“Yeah,” Her hand creeps from his shoulder to the nape of his neck, “I’m still deciding how I feel about it.” So close now. 

“Let me help you with that.” 

Their eyes close as they come together, lips pressed together, Max pushes Nikki into the wall a little harder and then grips onto her hair, her grip equally as tight on his hair, her other hand comes up to hold onto his shoulder. Their kissing is frantic, like a man who’s drowning and is so close to the surface, he holds tight to her hip as she begins to lick his bottom lip, he opens his mouth, they fight for dominance, Nikki lifts her leg so it’s on Max’s hip, he slides his hand down to grip it tight against himself. Nikki’s tongue wins as she begins to explore his mouth. Max takes his hand out from her hair and down to her other leg and lifts her up so now the only thing holding her up is Max and the wall, she gasps at the movement. He pulls back to kiss down from her mouth, to her jaw and then on her neck, she archs her back into his kisses, he makes his way up the other side, they both pant for air, once he get’s back up so their face to face he smirks at her. 

“Virgin huh?” Their both red faced and out of breath,she rolls her eyes releasing his hair from her tight grip. 

“Shut up.” Nikki mumbles and puts both of her hands to the side of his face and gives him a slow kiss, then looks down. “For someone that hasn’t worked out in a while, you’re holding out ok.” She gives him another kiss, but on his jaw. 

“The walls doing most of the work if I’m being honest.” He hisses out as she kisses him between his neck and jaw. 

They don’t speak again, she kisses lower, loosening his tie down to the third button, so she could reach lower, he groans as she nips lightly, Nikki looked at him with a smirk then moved back to Max’s lips as they continue on their previous encounter, they tilt their heads move against each other, there’s a knock at the door, they ignore it, there’s another, nothing. It isn’t until the door opens that they pull apart, Max nearly dropping Nikki on the ground, but she manages to steady herself as they look at the girl with brown hair, she looks like she’s about to laugh. 

“Time’s up.” She says simply and walks back across the hall. 

“Figures.” Max mutters, he looks over at Nikki in the light, she looks back at him, she laughs. “What?” He asks.

“You’re hair looks like a rats nest.” He brings his hand up to feel his hair, it does feel less orderly than usual, he looks over her and smiles. 

“You should see yours.” He snickers out, Nikki’s hair seems to defy gravity as it sticks up in different directions.

They both laugh in the hallway, Nikki looks back at the room where the games are taking place.

“I think I’m done for the night.” Nikki sighs content, then looks back at Max, “let’s go grab the guys and leave.” He nods in agreement and they make their way down stairs. 

They find Nerris and Neil first, then they find Space Kid in the middle of a keg standing contest, they wait for him to finish, after they rounded him up and he declared himself, The Keg Master of The Universe, they found Harrison showing off some tricks, while Preston watched off to the side with some other people, although Harrison’s tricks seem sloppy showing he had too much to drink, when told they were going home, he insisted on driving himself home, which then resulted in a fight for his keys and trying to find them after he made them disappear, they ended up being in Neil’s pocket. Once outside Neil tells Max to take Nikki home deciding to take everyone home, Max agreed after Neil proved to him that he was sober. The drive back to Nikki’s house was spent in comfortable silence, neither one of them even acknowledging how they made out, like it didn’t even happen, kind of like how Max and Nerris acted like they didn’t grind on each other, but there was something different about the air around them, it was like they didn’t get enough the first time, there was still an urge when they pulled up to Nikki’s building. Max watched her with a close eye as she unbuckles her seatbelt and grabs anything else she might forget, when she turns to say goodbye to him, she finds him already staring at her. The two smile at each other, Max leans forward slightly, Nikki goes to lean forward, but leans back instead, with a soft smile she opens the door. 

“Good night Max.” Nikki says simply before walking off into the building.

Max sits in the car and leans his head back against the seat and lets out a long breath before starting the car. 

“What am I doing?” He asks himself as he gives the building one last look and drives off. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So  
> Yeah  
> Their just going to pretend that never happened  
> Cause you know  
> Friendship  
> And  
> Hm  
> Yeah  
> Hope you enjoyed reading this
> 
>  
> 
> And no Nerris and Max isn't a thing now, I just added that because I think Nerris is an in the closet naughty person and to show that their friends and can bond over them being "dirty dancers"  
> Don't sweat


	6. A Mutual Understanding

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Max and Sasha spend most of the day together

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter I'm going to take to really explain Sasha and Max's "Relationship", not much Nikki in this chapter, but don't worry or be discouraged  
> A little shorter than usual, but I'm still happy about it  
> Hope You Enjoy

“What?” Max looks at his phone with furrowed eyebrows.

“I said I’m on my way to visit you.” Sasha says again, her tone a bit agitated.

Max had been awoken from his slumber by the ringing of his phone, he answered it gruffly only to be surprised when he heard Sasha’s voice on the other side. 

“Why?” He asks finally sitting up in bed, he looks over at his clock, it was ten in the morning. 

“Because, I want to.” He can basically hear her eyeroll over the phone. “That and there’s no good dick around here anyway.” 

They’re both surprised when Max let’s through a genuine laugh, it’s silent on both ends until a loud honk comes through the speaker, Max flinches at the sound. 

“It just turned green AssHole!” Sasha yells at a car, he smirks a bit at her road rage. 

“So, how long until you’re here?” He asks as he begins to get out of bed to see what Gwen and David are doing, figuring out how to get them out of the apartment by the time Sasha arrives.

“Twenty minutes.” Max looks out to see the two drinking coffee and talking, Sasha speaks again. “Is that enough time?” There’s something to her tone that makes Max think she’s challenging him. 

“More than enough.” He hangs up the phone without another word and casually strolls into the kitchen. “Good morning parents of mine.” David smiles at him and Gwen stays facing away from him.

“What did you do?” Gwen asks immediately without looking at him, David looks at Gwen with raised brows then back at Max. 

“Nothing.” He says with an annoyed tone. 

“Then you want something.” She turns to look at him with suspicious eyes. “What do you want?” They narrow their eyes at each other.

“How do you know he wants something.” David looks between the two, coffee cup in hand. 

“Because,” Gwen turns back to face her husband, “the only time he admits we’re his parents is when he’s done something wrong and wants to get on our good side, or,”  looking back at Max, “when he wants something.” The teen shrugs. 

“Fine you win.” Gwen smirks with victory. “I need you two out of here for an hour or more, I have a guest coming over.” 

“That’s wonderful!” David exclaims at the same time Gwen responds in a neutral tone. “That’s gross Max.” 

“How is that gross?” Max raises an eyebrow.  “You and David do it on the weekly and you don’t see me complaining.”

“Max!” David gasps out with a bright flush across his face. 

“You got me there.” Gwen puts up her hands in defeat. 

“Gwen!” David then gasps at her, his entire face now completely red. “This is not appropriate breakfast conversation.” His eyes are wide as he swallows trying to calm down. “Now Max, who’s coming over?” David regains the sparkle in his eye and smiles at the teen. “Is it Nikki?” Max freezes up. 

Homecoming was yesterday and Max was still recovering from the kiss him and Nikki had shared in the closet, it was so intense as if all they tension that had built up between them had gone into that, Max had thought that it would get rid of all the uncertain emotions he had about Nikki, but it didn’t, it just raised more questions about, what exactly he was doing and why? Where was his consciousness when he made this decision, was it too late to back out? He would have to tell Nikki, and then she would kill him, and he was really too young for that. 

“N-No.” Max stumbles a bit over the word, though his tone stays harsh. “Just a friend,” He rolls his eyes, then decides on a name, “Neil,” turning around he pours himself a cup of coffee, “no sex,” his tone turns mocking through the lie, “we’re just hanging out.” He turns back around.

“Fine.”Gwen lets out a defeated breath and begins to clear off her spot on the table. “Get dressed David, we’re heading out for the day.” She heads to their room to get ready, David looks after her then at Max, after finishing his coffee he follows. 

After the two adults get dressed, Max rushes them out the door and gets ready himself, tidying up his room a bit as he goes before he hears his doorbell ring, he walks over and opens the door to reveal Sasha and all her glory. Her hair is down in it’s natural waves, she wears a light pink leather pencil skirt with a white long sleeve that goes off both shoulders, Max stares at her with a plain expression though his hands start to shake a bit with anticipation, it had been three days since they last touched each other, but three weeks since they had kept each other  _ company _ . Sasha brushes pass him to get inside, she looks around once she’s at the end of the small hallway. Max can’t help, but to look at her shoulders, he keeps his stoic expression when she turns around to look at him, a smirk sits on her face, he walks towards her until their face to face, the silence is deafening. 

“I hate this shirt.” Sasha puts her hand to his chest, she smirks when he rolls his eyes.

“What you hate all my shirts now?” He asks with a smirk of his own, looking down at her. 

“No,” she says simply running her hand down to the hem of his shirt, “just the ones that are in the way.” 

And with that Max dips down to press his lips to hers, it’s quick and harsh, Max presses her to the wall, she moans into his mouth. Their movements are quick wasting no time, Max lifts her up by the thighs, she pulls off his shirt while he rubs her legs until her skirt has ridden all the way up to her underwear, her lips reaching his neck. The scene is familiar to Max, but due to his hormone riddled brain he couldn't place it  at the moment, that is until.

Max groans. “Nikki.” Then his hands stop, and Sasha’s kisses waver a bit, she looks up at him with furrowed eyebrows. 

“What did you say?” She asks, not completely sure she heard him correctly. 

He’s looking at her with the same confused face, but quickly clearing his throat and tightens his grip. 

“Hickeys.” He says simply, then giving her a kiss under her jaw to emphasis his point. “No hickeys.” 

“Oh.” Sasha slowly nods her head, they sit in the silence for a moment before they reach for each other again. 

Their ministrations continue without another hiccup, and they both couldn’t be more relieved after the fact, lying on their sides, facing each other, in Max’s bed both wrapped in his sheets. Sasha watches him lost in thought.

She would have never done something like this before, she had always thought that what she and Max had was more like a business arrangement. When they first met it was freshman year and she was failing math and her mom signed her up for tutoring, she luckily ended up with Max as tutor. They had sat down in a study room the library had, Sasha thought he was cute, also thought he might be a desperate nerd that she would be able to flirt with so he would do her homework for her. Instead though Max surprised her by answering her flirts with a “I'll do it if you pay me.” She thought that was easier than flirting. So when they'd meet up for tutoring she’d give him the money and watch him do the problems on a separate piece of paper, which she would then copy down on to her own paper. She actually learned from watching him do the problems and copying them down, she then started doing better on her tests. Sasha noticed Max around school a lot more and would see him sitting alone at lunch or just a lone in general looking broody, she finally dragged him over to her table. “Don't think we're friends, you just looked so depressing.” He shrugged, and from then on they hung out, but only because she “felt sorry” for him, which he accepted because he honestly could give two shits. There were rumors of course that they were dating, whenever the topic was brought up though they both would gag at the thought of dating, even now the thought was still a little strange to think about. She'd invite him to parties and to come hang out with her, Erin and Tabii, and to be honest they had a good time, Max and Sasha would spend most of the time judging people and talking shit about them. 

It was in junior year when things started to get weird, feelings, not  _ feelings _ , but more like puberty and urges, Sasha has always liked power and as Max's “business” grew, so did he and she noticed the power he had over people, and it was addictive. Soon, she found herself wanting and what she wanted she got, Sasha had invited him over, which was not uncommon in their relationship, but Max was surprised how the night went. When she woke up, she was a little shocked to see he wasn't there in the morning, but she did feel a little off about it, seeing him later that day was not much of a shock, they acted like nothing had happened, if anything was different after that, they were more bitter towards each other, but also closer in a way. Max was more protective and Sasha was more helpful. They did spend more time together though, they would chill in complete silence and talk about parents and school, they knew everything about each other. And yet, nothing, people would assume since they spent so much time together they'd love each other or be together, it would make sense, they're both heartless, but no, it was a mutual understanding on both sides that they couldn't have the heart racing, butterflies in the stomach feelings for one another. It was more like mutual respect for each other. 

“What?” Max asks after a while of just staring,making Sasha realize that she had been quiet for too long.

“Nothing.” She puts her hand in his hair and grimaces as she runs her hand through the strands of hair. “You need a haircut though.” 

“You’ve been staring at me for three minutes because I need a haircut.” He looks at her with a raised eyebrow. “Only you Sash.” Max sighs before getting up out of the bed, she sits up. 

“You know how unmanageable your hair gets when it’s long.” Sasha searches the ground for her underwear and bra, putting them on when she finds them. 

“You’re not wrong.” Max steps into his jeans. “I was going to get one next weekend.” He grabs her shirt off of his desk and turns around to throw it at her, she catches it easily and slips it on. 

They both head into the living room where Max’s shirt lies in the front entry way and her skirt on the couch, putting on their respective clothing, Sasha picks up her purse and turns to see Max putting on his jacket. 

“What’re you doing?” She asks as he grabs his house keys. 

“Let’s go do something.” Max says simply and slips on his shoes. “Gwen and David have the car and I’m not sitting around waiting for them to get back.” He pushes her out the door locking it behind himself. “And you have your car, so you’re taking me out.” Turning to face her she looks at him with crossed arms and a jutted out hip, he gives a semblance of a smile, she rolls her eyes. 

“Fine, but you're paying for the food.”  Sasha walks down the hall Max follows after her. 

 

“I thought you hated strawberry yogurt?” They sit in Sasha’s car, she parked it over by a park so they had nice scenery to look at while eating. “Thought pink was too girly for you?” Max looks down at his cup with a blank expression then back up at the open field in front of them

“I did, and it is.” He looks over at her, her eyes covered by sunglasses, but he could tell she was rolling her eyes at him.  “But someone got me into it.” Max thinks back to the football game and wiping the yogurt off of Nikki’s face. 

“Someone.” Sasha repeats, it’s not a question. “How’s the Nikki situation.” She doesn’t look up at him and continues spooning at her vanilla yogurt. 

“Oh,” taken by surprise by the question, Max clears his throat, “I found out she’s a virgin and-” Sasha scoffs.

“Obviously.” Max looks over to see she has an amused face on, she turns her head towards his confused face. “Oh please tell me you didn’t actually think she could even remotely get a guy in bed.” Max smirks.

“She almost got me.” He says in a matter of fact tone, Sasha’s amused face drops immediately, he can see her eyebrows scrunching. “Yeah I was about to say she’s a phenomenal kisser, probably even better than you.” It’s a bit of a deep cut, but Max lets it sink in, Sasha immediately turns her head to the other side as if to snub him. 

“Yeah right.” She scoffs. “Whatever.” She sticks a huge spoonful of yogurt in her mouth.

“Whats wrong I thought you wanted me to get with her?” Max asks in a cocky tone. “Jealous your not the only one getting a piece.” Sasha rolls her eyes before turning back to face him. 

“No.” Sasha sticks her tongue out at him. “Just insulted that you would even think to compare me to Nikki.” She shudders. “I’m  _ obviously _ the better kisser, besides I know how you like it.” She smirks when she sees a faint blush pass over his cheeks. 

“You got me there.” Max mumbles and continues on his now soupy strawberry yogurt. 

They sit in a comfortable silence, neither one really feeling like talking, and that was probably the best part of their relationship, the mutual understanding they had about each other.That they both hate people and social interactions, and finding it all unnecessary, because in the end who were they trying to impress. Sasha dressed to impress, but that was mostly due to how she was raised that and she liked to wear nice things, for herself, never had she dressed for anyone else. Max liked that about her, that and she could kicked anyones ass at any given moment, but always decided against it because she wouldn’t want to break a nail. That and she was completely her own person and she never changed her attitude, showing people at all times who she was, he respected her for that, because even he had troubles doing that. Max was just an asshole period, and he didn’t care who it hurt when he was that way. In short terms they were both heartless and it just seemed to work. The silence is broken when a woman passes by.

“Oh my god,” Sasha lets out an exasperated breath, “did you see her hair?” She asks loudly. 

“Yeah,” Max scoffs following her eyes in the direction the bystander had left, “we can still see how messed up your face is.” He chuckles.

“Dying it bright fuchsia isn’t taking away from the fact your plastic surgeon messed up.” Sasha adds on.

“Get your money back.” Max says in the direction of the lady

_ And they laughed. _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Their friends and assholes  
> They just can't seem to admit it to themselves  
> Laughter is a rare occasion in their relationship, so it's always something treasured.
> 
> Next chapter is more about Max and Neil, but there will definitely be more Nikki  
> I just thought that there should be clarification on how Max and Sasha see each other and how they intermingle


	7. Sick

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nikki's sick and Neil just wants to be a good friend.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this took forever  
> Please enjoy!

Of course Nikki's sick, when Max got to the lunch table on Monday she was nowhere to be seen, Neil said she caught a bug from his dad. He was a little relieved at that, he wasn't going to lie, because he didn't know what he was going to do when he saw her again. He kept thinking back to when they were in his car and he dropped her off at her building, they both leaned in, but at last minute she pulled back. She wanted to decide on whether he was a good distraction or not, they made out in the closet and she continued on like it didn’t happen, which he was fine with, but it was eating away at him. Max shouldn’t care on what she decided on, whether she chose to be in a misleading relationship with him, or, be in a probably loving, lasting relationship with Harrison, or any other guy at the school. Still, the thought of Nikki passing judgment made his stomach turn in anticipation. He found himself staring at her empty seat for the next few days, that and being distracted, so much so that he had almost forgotten a few “projects” that were paid for in advance, he got them done, but there were some close calls. It was wednesday when Neil, being the good friend he is, noticed Max's distracted state and decided to help him out.

"Do you want to come over today?” Neil doesn’t look up as he asks, their working on a worksheet in class, Max looks up for a second then back down.

“Uh, yeah, sure,” his eyebrows scrunch together not really focusing on the problem, “you sure no one will mind?” And by one he meant Nikki, but he just hoped Neil would catch on.

“Nikki's sick and our parents are dismissive, it shouldn't be a problem.” Neil shrugs, Max swallows the urge to let out a loud sigh, so he was not getting the social que. 

“Alright, meet out in front after school?” Max suggests as he finishes off his worksheet.

“Works for me.” They turn in their worksheets and wait for class to end.

 

Max lets David know his plans for the afternoon and went to the front, the two boys give a nod to each other in acknowledgment before Neil leads them to his car he shares with Nikki. The drive is pretty quiet, Neil plays classical music, Max doesn't mind it much, it's better than just silence. When they get to the door Max waits patiently for Neil to open it up, Neil yells out their arrival as they enter the apartment, setting the keys to the side on a small table. This of course is not the first time Max had been inside the McCormick residence, but last time he was a _little_ distracted to really take in the atmosphere of the house. It seemed nice and neat, but at the same time it seemed a bit off, like something wasn't quite right about the atmosphere. For homecoming they took pictures in the living room, there's a long couch it looks like it doesn't get used often, there's no TV just a bookshelf filled to the brim with books and a few magazines. The dining room looks more used, but gives off a feeling of uncomfortableness, it has a chandelier hanging above the middle of the table it's bright, the whole apartment is bright in addition to the curtains being open. Their kitchen has a bar that comes out from the wall that cuts it off from the rest of the house, four bar stools lined up along the counter. Neil leads him down a long hall, it's not skinny and claustrophobic like in Max's apartment, but more open, pictures of their family crowd the walls, Max takes time to admire a family photo of what looks like about ten year old Nikki and Neil at their parents wedding, he can't help, but smile a little noticing Nikki's white dress covered in dirt and, what must've been perfect curls, messed up. There's five doors along the hallway the first one Neil points out is their parents room the next to it is the restroom, and the two doors across the hall is his and Nikki's, Neils being the one on the very end. Coughs come from the two other bedrooms holding the ill, Max looks at Nikki's door a little longer than necessary as he walks to Neils room.

His room was pretty normal, besides from the tv and game console up against the wall, two beanbags sit up against his bed facing the tv, he has a desk pushed up against the wall where it faces outside, and his bed had blue plaid bed spread, the bed itself was a size bigger than Max's twin sized bed. Max set his bag down next to Neil’s in the corner and followed him over to the bean bag chairs sitting down as Neil started to turn on the tv and look through games.

“Want to play Call of Duty?” Neil holds up the case in question, Max shrugs.

“Sure.” He says simply and waits for a controller to be handed to him.

  
Neil sits down in the bean bag next to him as they start the game, neither one talks as they go through the motions of the game, avoiding fire and killing as they try to reach their vantage point. The only sound that can be heard is the violence from the game, curses under their breath and the occasional coughs and wheezes coming from the room next to them.

“So,” Max begins, though neither one looks away from the screen, “nice apartment.”

“Thanks.” Neil says simply.

“What kind of jobs do the parents have to afford this?” They cover each other as they run across an open area.

“My dad's a high ranking philosophy professor, and Candy,” Max can tell Neil is rolling his eyes, “Nikki's dad basically pays a lot of money for Candy and Nikki since they divorced, that and he sends her gifts every month, I'm pretty sure he still loves her.”

“And your dad is ok with that?” Max's eyebrows furrow with confusion, he was pretty sure if anyone were to pull that kind of thing with Gwen or David, there'd be hell to pay.

“I guess?” Neil just shakes his head a bit. “I don't think he cares because in the end, he has someone to have sex with constantly and mom doesn't, and that works for Candy because she has someone to spend money on her and all she has to do is open her legs.” Max looks over at Neil who's still playing, but his face is more frustrated than before.

“Oh.” He turns to look back at the television.

“Yeah.” It's silent again before Max talks.

“That's rough buddy.”

“Thanks.” Neil smiles a bit.

The air is a little lighter than before now.

 

A hour or maybe more has gone by and it's gotten to the point where both of their eyes hurt from forgetting to blink and both their stomachs are begging for food. In mutual understanding, Neil saves and then pauses the game and they head to the kitchen in search of food. Max sits at one of the bar stools as Neil rummages around in the cupboards for chips and a bowl to put them in.

“What about you?” Neil asks pulling a bowl out and then sets a bag of Doritos on the counter.

“What about me?” Max begins to open the bag.

“Your parents, what are they like?” He shrugs and sticks a chip in his mouth.

“Their fine,” Neil waits for more information, pouring the bag in the bowl, “you've met David, Gwen’s alright, she’ll let me do whatever as long as it's legal and I come home alive, but even then sometimes I get in trouble.” Neil throws away the empty bag and turns back to Max with a raised eyebrow.

“Why do you call them by their names?” He wonders out loud.

“Why do you call candy by her first name?” Max asks simply, Neil looks at him with understanding, waiting for more elaboration, but when he says nothing more he leaves it deciding he's not going to be able to get anymore information out of him. 

“Alright, so tell me about your old school.”

They talk about Max's old school and other topics while they eat chips, enjoying each other's company, it was nice, he hasn't really had any guy friends, let alone real friends before. The only thing he had was Mr. Honey nuts, David and Gwen, and on occasion Sasha, but other than that, no one to talk to about school, people, girls, and just life in general. Max almost forgot that Neil was just a pawn, that he was just being used to get to know Nikki, to break his sister, Neil didn't know that, all he knew is that he had someone to talk to and spend time with, someone he could have a conversation with and they would understand who he was. Did Max feel bad? He did, but he was too caught up in the feeling of new friendship to care about how it would probably be destroyed when things will go south, but for now, Max was going to be selfish and indulge himself.

“Max?” A scratchy voice enters their conversation, the two boys turn to the hallway to see Nikki in her pajamas, leaning against the entrance of the hallway.

“Nikki you should be in bed.” Neil rushes over to her and tries to herd her back to her room.

“I just wanted some juice, stop mothering me.” She waves him off half heartedly and begins to walk towards the kitchen, but ends up sitting down on the couch, she looks up at Neil. “Can you get me juice? I'm a little woozy.” Neil nods with a smile and heads for the fridge.  
Max can't stop looking at her, his heart starts pounding and his hands begins to get a little sweaty, he's nervous, despite knowing how sick Nikki is and how out of it she is, Max still feels like she's looking right through him.

“Hey Nikki.” Max manages a calm voice despite how jittery he is at the moment.

“Hi Max,” Nikki lets through a small smile, then laughs a little bit, “you look red.” Max touches his face to feel the warmth radiating off his cheeks, he hears Neil snicker in the background, Max sinks into his hoodie. “Now you're as red as when we made out in the closet!” There's a clatter in the fridge and Max turns to see Neil stuffing the juice in the fridge and slamming the door shut, he turns to make quick eye contact with Max before quickly walking towards Nikki with a faint blush on his face.

“Alright here's your juice.” Neil shoves the drink into her hand making her stand up. “Back to bed.” He ushers her to her door.

“You're even redder!” She squeals with laughter, then looks up at Neil. “Your red too.” And with that Nikki was shoved into her room. “Aww my orange juice.” She complains, his guess was that it spilled, Neil leans against the closed door.

“I'm guessing she's the kind of sick person who's a little out of it.” Max offers into the silence keeping his voice light.

“You kissed Nikki?” Neil looks over at him with a look of disbelief. “Look, I'm not trying take charge, but you could've given me a little warning? Like all that time we were talking you could've at least been like, ‘Yeah blues pretty cool, oh I kissed your sister, and this, that, and the other thing!’” Max blinks once at his outburst, Neil takes a calming breath. “Sorry, it just kind of took me off guard.”

“It's ok,” Max replies picking up the half empty bowl of chips, “let's just go play the game.” Neil nods and follows him wordlessly into his room, it's no more than 2 minutes after they start that Neil begins to talk.

“So was it just the once.” Neil asks giving Max a side glance.

“Yes.” His reply is short and blunt, Neil nods as they continue to play.

“Did you guys just make out or?” Max lets out a sigh of frustration.

“We just made out.” Neil nods again in understanding, it's quiet for a minute before he starts up again.

“So-” Max cuts him off by pausing the game and turning to face him fully.

“Oh my god, do you really want to do this right now?” Max basically growls out, Neils nods, he lets out a sigh and leans back in his beanbag. “Fine, what do you want to know?”

And the questions start, _‘Has this been going on long?’, ‘Is this why you always talk about Nikki?’, ‘Are you two getting together now?’, ‘Did you kiss her or did she kiss you?’, ‘Why in a closet?’, ‘Have you only made out?’ ‘Why are you so red?’ ‘Do you like her?’ ‘Stop yelling, I'm just asking questions.’_ To which Max responded with, _'No', 'No', 'What?', 'I don't know', 'It was mutual', 'Seven minutes in heaven', 'Yes', 'Shut up!' 'No!'_

“Are you done with the stupid questions now?” Max groans out.

“Almost-” Their cut off by a knock on the door, they both look up to see Nikki enter the room, she closes the door behind her and goes to lay down on Neils bed. “Awe c’mon Nik, now I'm going to wash my entire bed.” Neil complains turning around in the small chair to face her, she gets under covers and crawls so her head is now at the end of the bed.

“It's too cold in my room.” She groans out a cough following her words. “And your beds comfy and warm and I'm lonely.”

“Fine, as long as you don't mind the sound of shooting.” Neil unpauses the game, catching Max off guard but he quickly gets into the game.

Nikki watches them play, she would usually join in, playing video games was one of her favorite pass times when she wasn't doing anything school related, minus of course sports. At the moment though she felt about ready to die, Carl had come home one day from a lecture not feeling too great and decided it was ok to drink from her water bottle. Now they both had sore throats and stuffy noses, Nikki was mostly upset about it because she had to miss cross country practice and school and friends and, as discreetly as she can she looks over at Max, he looked way too focused on the game then needed, but she guessed it was because he was trying to avoid looking at her. Nikki smiles, she got him to blush and the first time was just because he was looking at her. She didn't know how to feel about Max, he was smart, funny, and really cute, but there was something off about it, like he wasn't fully there, he seemed distant and cold and unfeeling and maybe even a little broken.

That was something she could tell he was trying to hide from everyone, that he was a completely different person than the charming and quiet one they knew. Nikki's guess was that maybe he was starting off with a new attitude, that's probably why she was so distracted, as she would call it, by him, he was trying to be a new person. He was exciting and new and honestly the first time she met him, she couldn't help herself from swooning over the fect that he came out of nowhere to help three strangers, not that she would ever admit that. Homecoming though, was basically judgement day, she had never felt as flustered as she did that day, first off, she had no idea Max could dance like that, or at all she just thought he was joking and that he would dance like all the other guys, side stepping. Second of all, Max was a terrible flirt and just overall very charming, she couldn't understand how he could just keep sucking her right back into him. Then there was the closet, she wasn't planning on kissing him at all, she thought they could just talk, but the moment they were in there he had her pinned against the wall and she knew she was doomed.

Nikki had been kissed before, nothing too special once by a boy she knew in fifth grade and again when she and space kid went out for a little while freshman year, it wasn't anything major. They liked each other, they hugged and kissed and maybe only made out once or twice, but in the end they both decided they were better off as friends than anything else. But Max, he was a different story, he kissed her like the world was ending and it was their last chance to kiss another human, and it made her knees week. All the tension from that night had filled that closet to the brim and when they were cut off, the tension still followed them around the house when they were gathering their friends and to Max's car and all the way to her building. And when he leaned into kiss her she wanted to, but she had to back away, because there's still so much she doesn't know about Max and why he acted completely different from the way he was. Not that she wouldn't mind another kiss from him.

“I'm going to grab a water, do you guys want anything?” Nikki's brought out of her thoughts by Neil standing up.

“I'll take a water.” Max says setting his controller down next to him.

“Juice.” Nikki says simply, Neil nods and walks out of the room leaving the two in silence. “So.” Her voice is scratchy still.

“So.” Max repeats back to her, they sit in the silence a little longer. “Now what?” He asks looking back at her.

“What do you mean?” Nikki asks waiting for more explanation.

“Well we made out,” he seems to be struggling with the words a faint blush beginning to cross his face, “and there's some tension, so now what?” Max makes eye contact with Nikki and she feels her heart skip a beat.

“Now let's just see how it plays out.” She lets a small smile through before scooting closer to him and leaning her head against his and closes her eyes.

“Ok.” Max manages an even voice, even though he can feel her breath against his neck and ear, he tries to ignore the tingling sensation it brings as her breathing slows down.

“You're going to get sick like that.” Neils voice breaks in as he walks into the room, Max watches him sit down and hand him the water bottle and sets a glass of orange juice on the ground for Nikki. “Are you sleeping?” His voice is directed over Max's shoulder, when there's no response Neil turns back to the tv, Max does the same.

Half way through playing Max feels Neil looking at him so he looks over at him to see him smirking at him.

“What?” Max says with a little bite to it.

“Nothing nothing.” Neil turns back to the game, the smirk still on his face.

Max's face turns into an angry pout as he continues to play, knowing full well that Neil is taking a mental note of how Nikki's keeping her head against Max while she sleeps and how Max is blushing. Not that he cares, because it's pretty nice, to just chill with someone, and to have a friend, even if it's only for a little bit. He's in a better mood when he goes home that night, it isn't until the morning does he realize letting Nikki sleep on him was a bad idea, but there's the upside that he got to miss school, in the end it was worth it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hopefully things speed up  
> I hope you enjoyed our main children all interacting  
> The apartment is sort of like a museum, in a way kind of unwelcoming despite the hosts attitudes  
> Also I really love reading all your comments, they always leave a warm feeling in my frozen heart  
> Thanks for reading!


	8. Cookies and Cream

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The gang hangs out at Max's and some different things happen

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is unedited  
> And the best I could do  
> Literally killed myself over writing this  
> Sorry it took forever  
> Hope you enjoy!

“Shit.” Another sleepless night. 

Max was smart, extremely so, probably not to Neils extent, but that was mostly due to him not giving a shit about life, that was beside the point though. Despite Max being this smart guy, he's been making some pretty stupid decisions lately, for reasons unbeknownst to him. Nikki was going to be the death of him, he didn't understand what she was doing to him, or why all the sudden after spending time with her, she was giving him emotions. 

**_~A Week Earlier~_ **

“I’m calling bull shit.” Max scoffs as he and Neil walk down the hall in the early morning. 

“I am not shitting you,” Neil smiles, “they were a thing, for two weeks and he was over at our place every other day, it was like he lived with us, it was kind of freaky.” Neil adjusts the books in his hands as the two near Nikki’s locker. 

“Oh really?” Max raises an eyebrow skeptically, he slides up next to Nikki’s open locker and moves it to the side making her look up at the two.

“Hey guys.” Nikki smiles at the two and continues to move her things from her bag to her locker. 

“You and Space Kid huh?” Max asks bluntly, there’s a brief stutter in her movements, but she plays it off and scoffs.

“Old news.” She rolls her eyes, Neil nudges Max.

“Told you.” Neil smiles triumphantly.

“Yeah, yeah, how was I supposed to know? Nikki doesn’t seem like the kind to be into nerds.” Max shrugs his shoulders looking at Neil while gesturing in her direction. 

“For your information Max,” Nikki closes her locker with one hand still on the door, she looks at him with slight smirk, “my type is ‘nice guy’s’, I don’t really go for the uncaring macho types often.” With that Nikki looks between the two with a smile and walks in the direction of her first class.

“Sucks for you then.” Neil snickers looking down at Max, who stands up from his position against the locker looking after Nikki with a slight scowl, then up at Neil. 

“She said often Neil,” his face turning amused, “there’s still a chance.” The two smile at each other as the bell rings, sending them to their respective classrooms. 

It’s lunch time when Nerris brings up the idea of their lunch bunch hanging out sometime outside of a school function, they all agreed it would be fun, Max being the nice guy he is offers to host it the next day, which is a friday because his parents will be out and won't be able to bother them, it wasn’t true, but he always knew how to get them out of the house. After the details are settled Max leans over nuding Nikki a bit on her arm, she looks at him with a smile, making his heart start to beat a little faster, but he ignores it.

“That nice enough for ya Nik?” Max asks a joking smirk on his face, Nikki raises her eyebrow and matches his smirk. 

“So it’s nice to invite your friends over to your house?” She asks leaning in a bit. 

“Hey, I hate people,” Max backs away holding his hands up in defense, fighting away the urge to blush, “and inviting them into my domain of living, that was a hard thing to do.” Nikki gives him a light punch on the shoulder, they both let out a little laugh. 

“Friends don’t count as people Maxie pad.” Max lets his eyes narrow playfully. 

“It’s not just people, it’s everyone, it’s a hard fact to face.” He looks back down at his food. “I hate everything.” He begins to eat again, but feels a weight lean on him , he looks to see Nikki resting her chin on his shoulder with big eyes. 

“Well you could never hate me Max, I’m too precious.” Nikki flutters her up at him with a sweet smile, he scowls as he feels a blush cross his face, he looks up and away from her. 

“Yeah, yeah, whatever.” Nikki laughs as Max puts his hand against her cheek and pushes her away, they both continue on eating their lunch. 

He looks around as he eats his eyes landing on Harrison, who’s looking at him with what could only be described as hatred, Max narrows his eyes at the illusionist, the two fighting for dominance through eye contact. Max knew how Harrison felt about Nikki, and Max was in denial about how he felt about Nikki, Max also knew that what he was doing to Nikki was wrong and she deserves a guy like Harrison, a good person and not a total mess. But there was the selfish part of him that didn’t like the thought of Harrison being with Nikki, that wants to be Nikki’s only option, the part of him that he’s always had a hard time dealing with, because emotions just weren’t his thing.  Max knows he should look away first, leave the table, and never talk to Nikki ever again, because that’d be easier than the mess ahead, but he doesn’t back down, because Harrison is weak in this aspect, and Max can't fight the urge to dominate. So Max stares back with more ferocity until Harrison gives in and looks away, he feels victorious. 

It was the next day and Max had told Gwen and David he needed the apartment again, this time becuase he invited the whole gang over, David was a bit wary at the thought of five teenagers alone in the apartment with no supervision for so long, but Gwen made Max swear there would be no drinking, smoking, or anything illegal that would happen in the building or else she would ground him for the rest of his life. He said she didn’t need to be so extreme about it, making Gwen narrow her eyes, he sighed and let her take his pinky in hers to seal the deal. Later in the evening the two left the house and it wasn’t more than thirty minutes later Max heard a knocking on his door, he opens it to reveal Nerris, in her arms she holds a game board along with a large book, Max looks at her with a raised brow, but she doesn’t say anything as she moves past him to the living room and sets down her things and begins to set up her board and opening her book, Max closes the front door still watching Nerris with confusion. 

“Um,” Nerris looks up from her actions as Max walks towards her, “What’re you doing?” Max sits down on the couch, Nerris blink before turning back to the game in front of her. 

“Setting up, duh.” She responds and continues on. 

Max watches as she continues on pulling out pieces and characters and some large pamphlet thing that she unfolds and acts as a divider from the rest of the activity on his coffee table. Nerris finishes off and gets up off the ground to sit up on the couch next to Max.

“What is this?” Max asks looking just as confused as when the girl came in. 

“Dungeons and Dragons,” She shrugs her shoulders, “we usually play whenever we hang out and I decided to let you in on our little “fantasy” realm, since you’re part of our group now.” Max lets the words sink in. 

“Part of the group.” He repeats back Nerris nods.

“Welcome to the lunch bunch.” She sets her hand on his shoulder and smiles, he gives her a small smile back, she twists her mouth to the side before speaking. “Can I try something?” She asks, Max scrunches his face up a bit.

“I guess?” He says confused, shrugging, his confusion grows as Nerris scoots closer to him. 

“Don’t freak out.” Nerris says, Max only nods as he watches Nerris closes her eyes and leans in and kisses him, he inhales sharply and looks at her with wide eyes as she leans back with a disatisfied look on her face. 

“What the fuck was that!?” Max immediately jerks back looking at Nerris with a shocked face. 

“I wanted to see what all the fuss was about.” She shrugs and moves to the opposite side of the couch to give Max space. 

“What?!” Max nearly shouts. 

“Nikki’s constantly going on and on about how you’re ‘soft and gentle and sweet’ you are.” Nerris mocks a girlish voice and flutters her eyelashes, Max stops at that. 

Max stops a bit at that, Nikki talks about him he feels his chest warm up. 

“She talks about me?” Max questions as casually as he can.

“I’ve already said too much.” She shakes her head refusing to answer. 

The two sit in silence waiting for the others to show up at his apartment, questions starting to build in his mind, what did they talk about? Did they talk about him? Other guys? Max’s mind runs rampant with different ideas of what the two girls would talk about when they were away from prying ears.

“I don’t like you, if that’s what you’re thinking.” Nerris finally says, interrupting Max’s thoughts, he looks up to meet her dead stare. 

“I wasn’t, I mean I did at first, but-” he lets out a frustrated sigh and runs a hand up his face, awkward silence follows between the two.

Nerris brings her knees up to her chest and wraps her arms around her knees leaning her head against her legs, while Max sinks into the couch despite being stiff and uncomfortable with closed eyes. 

“Can I tell you something?” Nerris speaks up, Max opens one eye to look at her.

“Sure.” He responds, she avoids eye contact as she tries to search for words, Max sits up in his spot waiting. 

“I haven’t told anyone this,” Nerris looks at him fully, “including Nikki, so if you tell anyone I will destroy you.” She points a finger at him with a slight glare on her face, Max nods taking her pinky in his and shakes it slightly, Nerris looks a bit shocked at the childish act coming from the usual stoik teen, but she lets a slight smile pass her lips, they both let go and Max waits. “I think, I like Harrison.” She crosses her legs waiting for his reaction. 

“Really?” Max asks surprised. “I thought you hated him?” Nerris moves her head around a bit before shrugging, not exactly disagreeing. 

“I hate how annoying he is, and yet there is this sort of charm about him that I can’t seem to dismiss.” Max can see how she somewhat swoons, but can see she is holding back, she then purses her lips. “But he’s practically in love with Nikki, I don’t blame him, everybody has a crush on Nikki, she’s nice, pretty, and just really awesome in general, and I’m,” she gestures to herself, “me.” Nerris brings her hands up to grip at her head. “I have braces, a lisp, a giant nerd, I’ve never done a sport in my entire life, I’m not nice, I’m an asshole.” Max frowns and moves closer to her on the couch setting a hand on her shoulder. 

“Hey.” Nerris looks up. “Fuck people, they suck,” Nerris lets out a little laugh, “I hate nerds Nerris, but you’re one of the best nerds I have ever met.”

“What about Neil?” Nerris asks jokingly. 

“He’s my next favorite.” He nudges her with a slight smirk, amusement flowing between the two. “Besides you’re one of the best dancers I’ve seen around here.” 

“Such a charmer.” Nerris jokes. “No wonder Nikki likes you.” Max makes sure to not to snap his head to look at her, instead he sticks his hands in his hoodie pockets to twist his hands together. “Sorry.” Max looks at her a little confused before realizing what she was talking about. 

“Oh, it’s okay.” Max sets a smirk on his face. “So does it live up to it’s legend?” He asks smugly, Nerris rolls her eyes. 

“Honestly, it was meh.” Nerris lifts one shoulder smirking a bit at Max’s small scowl. “It was like kissing my brother.”

“Years of experience down the drain.” Nerris snorts at Max’s retort.

The two continue to talk and joke until Harrison comes, who seems a little shocked to see Nerris already sitting in the apartment with a smile on her face, Harrison’s face looked conflicted as he sat down on the ground near where Nerris sits on the couch, immediately striking up a conversation with her. Max looks between the two as their casual conversation turns to bickering and then to arguing, Max grows tired of watching and heads into the kitchen to grab chips and and other snacks, waiting for the rest of their group to show up. When they do appear at Max’s door, he let out a sigh of relief grabbing them both by the arm and dragging them through the apartment door, then announces their arrival making the two “magicians” turn their heads. Harrison’s eyes lighten up a bit at Nikki’s arrival, Max ignores it to look over at Nerris, her facial expression reverting to the unsure and upset one from earlier. Max goes to sit next to Nerris on the couch and elbows her in the side. 

“Hey,” Nerris looks at him with slightly narrowed eyes, “let’s start your nerd game.” Max allows a small smile onto his face, Nerris returns the gesture and then goes onto start the game.

Max almost immediately regrets getting the game started, the four getting right into the game and character, he did get help from the group of friends, though it didn’t matter much to him because he didn’t care much for the game. There were too many rules to memorize or keep up with, he was told that anything was possible when playing, but whenever they were faced with some sort of huge obstacle and Nerris asked what his course of action was going to be, he said “I kill myself.” which Nerris would respond with “That’s not an option! You can’t kill yourself!” after a while she stopped asking him and just answered for him. The game lasts what feels like forever to Max, but when he looked around he saw how into the game everyone was, no one else seemed to thought this was stupid. After an hour or two Max convinced them to stop and do something else, the group decided that netflix was a safe choice, although finding something to watch was more of a challenge than anything else that happened in their game. 

They decided on  _ Ferris Bueller's Days Off,  _ throughout most of the movie they argued on who’s Cameron, Ferris, and Simone, although the two girls rejected the idea of being Simone, Nerris said she was more of a Jeanie than anything else, and Nikki being more Ferris than the boys were. Nerris was sort of a stickler for rules, and could understand why Jeanie was upset and honestly loved her characterization. Max was a deviant and uncaring  like Ferris, but dead on the inside like Cameron. Neil was smart and calculated like Ferris, but lacked the gusto and was scared like Cameron. Harrison had the kind of excitement like Ferris, but overall had a sort of Cameron vibe about him. Nikki on the other hand seemed like the perfect combination of all the Ferris traits and didn’t show any parts of Cameron. There’s nothing wrong with Cameron of course, he was an amazing friend, and despite all the shit Ferris put him through remained by his side and loyal, Nikki pointed out this was a good trait that Neil had, saying despite all the adventures she’s put him through, he’d had always been a good friend and brother to her no matter what. They all watched the rest of the movie with a content silence after that.

When searching for the next movie Harrison received a text from his parents telling him it was around the time for him to come home, he began gathering his stuff, when Nerris spoke up. 

“Do you mind if I catch a ride with you?” Nerris stands up abruptly. “My dad gave me a ride and I need one.” Harrison stares at her surprised then at the others for confirmation of what he was hearing.

“Uhm,” Harrison makes brief eye contact with Max, who begins to slightly nod his head at him, Harrison’s squints a bit but turns back to meet face to face with Nerris, “sure.” He shrugs with a slight smile and waits for Nerris to grab her things before the two head out the door.

And then there was three, they all sat on Max’s small couch him sitting on one end and Nikki on the other and Neil sitting in the middle, they decided on watching  _ Hot Fuzz _ with Simon Pegg and Nick Frost. They got to the part in the movie where Nick Frost’s character was eating cake and ice cream, which then brought up the conversation of the trio wanting ice cream also. Max couldn’t go because David and Gwen had the car leaving the trip between Neil and Nikki, Max watches as the two go through six rounds of rock, paper, scissors before they get to the seventh round.

“This is the last round,” Max groans out, “I shit you not if no one goes to get that ice cream I’m going to scream.” 

“Well why don’t you go get the ice cream then shit face.” Neil states agitatedly. 

“No car, remember dip shit.” Max responds with just as much as annoyance, the two glare at each other.

“Guys.” Nikki interrupts. “We’re all tense from lack of ice cream, now let’s not say anything we might regret.” 

The two boys look away from each other, Neil goes straight into the zone, Max watches as the two begin their last round of the hand game ready for the insanity to be over, it’s almost like slow motion as the pair of siblings bring their hands down with finality. Nikki holds rock, while Neil lays down scissors, Neil flings himself back against the couch with a groan of frustration, Nikki throws her hands up with victory, Max lets out a relieved sigh happy that they could finally get their ice cream. Neil leaves the apartment stating he’d be back soon and they don’t get a say in the flavor. Nikki and Max sit in the silent apartment and wait for Neils return, though it doesn’t last long. 

“So who got here first?” She asks turning her body  to face him on the couch, Max looks over at her for a second before responding. 

“Nerris.” He doesn’t say anything else, not sure if he should mention the small kiss he and Nerris shared even though it was quite uneventful.

“Really? What’d you guys talk about? I know you guys don’t usually talk or hang out much.” She leans forward a bit waiting for a story, Max starts to play with the lint in his pocket. 

“Ya know, we actually bonded a bit, had a deep conversation.” He rolls his eyes at his own explanation.

“That sounds fun.” She smiles up at him, Max watches her for a moment before he feels a devilish smirk climb its way onto his face.

“Oh yeah, definitely,” he looks away from her, “especially when we kissed.” From the corner of his eye’s he can see Nikki back away from him.

“So how was that?” Nikki’s tone is a bit stand offish, Max looks over to see her looking off to the side looking peeved at the same time neutral. 

“To be honest I was shocked, so I didn’t have any time to react, not even sure how I would react.” Max thinks out loud for the first time on the matter, completely neutral to the situation that had happened.

“Hm.” Nikki simply hums.

“Although,” Nikki watches him from the corner of her eye, “Nerris does say it was like kissing a brother, which I found highly insulting, I mean have you met me?” Max gestures to himself, Nikki lets a small smile escape through her lips. 

“Yeah and I have first hand experience.” She turns to face him fully with a smirk, Max is a bit taken back at her facial expression and the mention of their kiss, it had been weeks since that had happened, he recovers quickly though and returns her smirk with his own. 

“And?” He asks moving closer to her on the couch, she doesn’t make any action to move. 

“Pretty good,” she lifts one shoulder to shrug, but leans in close to him, “although I may need some refreshment.” Max brings up a hand to hold the back of her head, bringing them closer. 

“I can help with that.” He practically whispers as he brings her head closer as the two’s lips collide. 

It’s fast and hurried as Nikki pulls her closer as she leans back making it so she’s laying down and Max is on top of her, the two pull apart briefly for air before coming back together with open mouths. Max brings his other hand down to her waist to pull her closer, Nikki brings her hands up to tangle into Max’s curly hair, she then brings her left knee up to hook onto Max’s hip, his hand immediately goes hold it into place. Nikki lifts her hips to meet his and Max stops and pulls away slowly to look down at her, she’s blushing bright red, Max feels the same color on his face, and he was pretty sure it wasn’t because of their making out, although they were panting a bit. 

“Did you,” Max begins his question, the girl below him avoiding eye contact with furrowed eyebrows, “mean to do that?” Nikki simply nods. 

“I mean if it’s fine with you.” She brings one of her hands down to rub at her forehead, almost as if she was getting a headache. 

“It’s fine with me.” Max says quickly, suddenly antsy. “I was just making sure you were-”

“Well I am,” Nikki sits up abruptly making Max back up a bit, “but you stopped.” She points out a little frustrated. 

“I only stopped because I thought you were just being hormonal.” He states just as frustrated now, Nikki furrows her eyebrows.

“Well of course I’m horny,” Max’s eyes widen a bit at her crude word choice, though he’s no saint either, “we’re making out and being all touchy feely.” Max narrows his eyes at her

The two glare at each other for a moment before they reach for each other quickly as they begin their kisses again, Max’s hand on her waist now pushing up her shirt as Nikki begins to tug on his sweat shirt, their actions more fervent and hurried than before. That is until they hear the door begin to open, Max quickly pulls away from Nikki getting to the opposite side of the couch, as Nikki sits up and pulls her shirt down, the two try to calm their racing hearts. Max turns around in his seat to see Gwen, David, and Neil coming inside, Max’s facial expression goes sour when he see’s his parents come in. 

“What’re you two doing here?” Max asks as David closes the apartment door behind him. 

“We got bored and came home.” Gwen shrugs and looks between the two teens on the couch, almost eyeing them knowingly, then she smirks. “Hi I’m Gwen,” she walks towards the spot on the couch with a smile where Nikki was,“Max’s mom.” She reaches out here hand and Nikki takes it in her’s and shakes it. 

“Nice to meet you, I’ve heard so much about you.” That was a lie, Max rarely talked about his two parents. 

“All bad things I know.” Gwen jokes deadpan, Nikki lets out a snort, Max watches the interaction with furrowed brows.

“I have the ice cream.” Neil calls over, Max looks to see Neil setting the bag down on the dining room table, which they barely used. 

“I’ll get the bowls.” David chimes in from the kitchen. 

Nikki jumps up from the couch and runs towards the kitchen at the mention of ice cream, Gwen goes to say something to Max, but is cut off by Nikki’s voice whining in the background.

“Cookies and Cream? C’mon Neil.” The two look over to see Nikki leans against the wall dramatically as David enters the room with bowls and spoons, he smiles at Nikki.

“Should I take your bowl back then Nikki.” David teases holding one bowl, Nikki stands up straight before smiling at him. 

“No that’s fine Mr. Greenwood.” Neil begins to serve out the ice cream into the bowls. 

“You can call me David, it’s ok out of school.” He smiles at her, she beams back.

Gwen and Max watch the interaction before turning back to face each other, Gwen leans against the back of the couch. 

“I like her.” She says simply, Max can see the smallest of smirks grace her lips. 

“Yeah she’s a good friend.” Max states narrowing his eyes trying to tell her to leave it, she ignores the social queue. 

“That must be some friendzone you got there,” Gwen sighs before leaning back, “back in my day making out wasn’t included in the friendship agreement.” Max feels a blush creep up the back of his head, he glares down at the couch. 

“Whatever Gwen.” Max grumbles out, she hits his forearm with the back of her hand lightly, he looks up to see her walking towards the table where the other three were talking. 

“Come get some ice cream.” Gwen calls over her shoulder, Max lets out a sigh before getting up from the couch and grabbing a bowl of cookies and cream. 

_**~*~** _

He liked her, it was a fact he had to face that night when she left and gave him a kiss on the cheek before leaving out his door to meet Neil in the car, Max couldn’t help but to reach up to touch the spot where her lips met his cheek feeling the spot heat up. He liked that they could hang out and talk, and not everything was so negative, she saw everything with wide eyes and a childlike wonder, she was just something he wasn’t used to, it was nice. But of course the thought would always come back, that it wasn’t real, it wasn’t supposed to be, it was a job, he would text Sasha after each time they hung out and would tell her something new. He’d always ask what’d she’d do with the information, she’d say she was still working on that part, for now it was something she liked to look at when she was bored. Max would only purse his lips and toss his phone to the side, deciding not to let his mind dwell on it, he had to remind himself. 

It’s not real. It’s not real.  _ It’s not real.  _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Not my best  
> But I hope it was good enough for you anyway  
> Max realizes his has feelings  
> And that he might have morals  
> It's kinda tearing him apart inside


	9. Queen

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nikki and Max tell all

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this took forever!  
> Things are hectic and I've been working like a dog, but at least we've got this!  
> Hope you enjoy!  
> We're about to find out whats up with the two love birds
> 
>  
> 
> Again, I did not edit  
> and don't expect me to edit until I finish this story cause I'm  
> Laaaaaaaazzzzzzyyyyyy

Max closes the bedroom door behind him as Nikki throws her bag to the side and flops down onto her bed so her head hangs off the end upside down, Max decides on sitting on the floor in front of her. She had invited Max over to hang out, and  _ just _ hang out, so they could talk and get to know each other better so they wouldn’t be going into this thing they were doing, so blindly. Although Max was trying to at least get a little action.

“You’re pretty.” Nikki blushes at Max’s comment as she hangs upside down on her bed.

“Yeah?” She asks tilting her head a bit, Max presses his nose against hers with a smirk.

“Yeah.” He presses a soft kiss against her lips, Nikki rolls her eyes with a soft smile.

“Well you’re annoying.” The two smile at each other as Nikki softly pushes away Max’s face so there’s some distance between them. “So Maxie, tell me about yourself.” Nikki turns her body around so she’s laying on her stomach.

“Eh,” Max shrugs his shoulders, “I’m not too good at that kind of stuff, why don’t you start?” He asks as he leans his forearms on his crossed legs. 

“There’s not much to tell.” She shrugs and crosses her arms under her chin. 

There was though, there were so many things Max wanted to know about her, why she avoided talking about anything that showed she trusted him? Why Neil wouldn’t tell him anything? What exactly happened between her and Sasha? Although she probably some questions for him, why wouldn’t he talk about  his “parents”? Why was he always so nervous around her? Why couldn’t he give her a commitment? These were the questions he asked himself almost daily. They continue to stare at each other waiting for the other to say something, that is until someone barges through Nikki’s door, both of their heads jerk up at the intrusion to see Candy leaning against the Nikki’s door way.

“Mom?” Nikki asks sitting up on her bed, Max watches quietly from the floor. 

“Hey sweetie.” Candy slurs, her eye’s drooping a bit, her gaze travels from Nikki to Max. “Oh, thats some handsome company you have here Nicolette,” Candy gets down on her knees so she’s eye level with Max, she puts a hand on his knee, “what’s your name honey?” Max looks from the woman in front of him to  Nikki sitting on top of her bed, she’s glaring at her mom. 

“Max.” He puts his hand out cautiously, instead she pulls him in for a hug. 

“Any guest of Nikki’s is a guest of mine.” She pulls back with a giggle still holding onto his shoulders, she gives him a not so discrete wink. 

“Is there something you wanted?” Nikki snaps from her spot on top the bed, Candy turns to look at her like she had forgotten she was there, she smiles and crawls her way onto the bed. 

“I just wanted to see my baby.” Candy brings in close to her chest to cradle her. “I went to go look for Carl so we could get busy while I’m still juiced up.” She laughs as Nikki pushes her away with disgust. 

“I need you to get out.” Nikki says harshly as she gets off the bed, Max stands up in response, he watches as Nikki tries to push Candy out. 

“Nicolette.” Candy says somewhat exclaimed as she’s forced towards the door. “I was just about to ask your  _ friend _ here if he wanted to see your pageant photos.” 

“No-” Nikki’s protest is cut off by the sound of Max’s voice.

“Actually,” the two woman turn to look at him, “I would love to see your pageant days.” His tone is matter of fact, he smirks as he watches Candy slips away from Nikki and to his side with a lazy smile.

“Great!” She tugs him by the arm out of the room. “You know my Nicolette is one of the best pageant girls I have ever seen and that’s saying something, considering I used to  be one myself.” Candy brings him into one of the rooms across the hall, which he guesses is her and Carl’s room, she opens the closet on the farr side of the room to reveal pink sashes and huge sparkling crowns, she reaches in and grabs a photo. “Nicolette was runner up for Miss Teen USA when she was only  _ sixteen _ , but she was beat by some girl from virginia.” She sneers down at the photo before handing it over to Max. 

Nikki looks beautiful as she stands with a straight poise a picture perfect smile and a pale blue gown with a white sash going across her body, she’s standing next to a girl who seems to be around the same age as her looking just as done up with a crown and flowers. Max can’t stop staring at the picture that is until someone tugs it out of his hand, he looks to the side to see a glaring Nikki, who has her hair pulled back in a lazy ponytail, wearing a sweatshirt and jeans, with no make up, looking just as breathtaking.

“Your lucky I even decided to go and compete.” She growls at her mother, Candy only laughs. 

“She doesn’t like going to the pageants, but she always comes through no matter what.” She pinches Nikki’s cheek happily taking the photo back. 

“Doesn’t? You’re still doing pageants?” Max turns his attention back to Nikki, she freezes at his question, she turns away somewhat ashamed.

“Well of course she does, I can’t just waste perfectly good talent like that,” Candy snorts as she begins to put on a sash and crown, “in fact she’s doing the christmas pageant that’s coming up in the next month or two.” She begins to walk around the room waving at no one as if she were in the pageant herself. 

“It’s my last one, and then I’m never doing this bullshit again.” Nikki says darkly, as if she’s had this conversation a thousand times over, and he’s sure she has.

“Well of course it’s not the last one,” Candy brushes off her statement stopping to stare at her with glazed over eyes, “you're going to have a baby girl at some point, and that little baby is gonna be a beauty star just like her momma and me and my mom and her mom,” Candy trails off as if she were in a happy day dream, Nikki nearly glares at her, Candy turns abruptly towards max taking ahold of his shoulders. “You’ll give my Nicolette a baby girl won’t you?” She asks genuinely making Max blush. 

“I can’t promise you that.” Max says simply before slipping out of her grasp, Nikki looks livid.

“We’re going back to my room.” Nikki drags Max back across the hall, Candy calling out from behind the closed door. 

“Don’t come out ’til it’s a girl!”

“I hate her.” Nikki growls, she turns to face Max fully. “And not just in that teenage girl I hate my mom kind of way, I actually hate her.” She seethes before sitting down on her bed with a huff. 

Max goes to sit down next to her. “I-” he’s immediately cut off by Nikki grabbing his arm.

“And you,” she’s almost glaring at him, “don’t encourage her, what the hells a matter with you?”

“I didn’t know.” Max bites back turning his body more towards her. “I thought we were trying to get to know each other better? You’re idea, not mine remember.” The two stare at each other angrily, Max lets out breathe of air to calm himself, before his face turns soft. “I didn’t know you did pageants.” Nikki drops her anger too and returns Max’s facial expression.

“Nobody knows except Neil,” Nikki says exasperated, “it’s not exactly something I like to do, let alone tell people.” 

“Well why not?” Nikki looks at him like he’s crazy. “From what I hear and saw, you were pretty fucking awesome at it.” He sticks his hands inside his hoodie pocket, waiting for an explanation. 

“Before my mom married Carl, even before she and my dad got divorced, she’s been making me do stupid beauty pageants, forcing me to be a perfect ‘girl’ or whatever.” She puts her fingers up for quotation marks. “She’d keep the money I’d get from the pageants and use it to buy herself smokes and boozes and whatever hell else she does. I used to like it because I was spending time with her and she liked that I won, but as I got older I didn’t like it and I wanted to do what I wanted to do, like roll in the mud and play with bugs.” Max lets a little chuckle out at that, Nikki lets a small smile pass her lips, but she continues on with a frown. “I don’t know I keep letting her push me into  doing the stupid things anyway, I guess I just miss the naive feeling of her actually loving me, but in the end it’s not real and I get heartbroken all over again.” Nikki looks up from where her feet were on the ground to look at Max. 

“It’s not your fault,” he shrugs a bit, “she was a shit mother, and you were a kid, there’s nothing anyone could do about it.”

“See, you can just accept it like it’s nothing, but who just uses their kid like that?” She says exasperatedly before letting out a sigh. “I don’t know why I’m so surprised, she treats my dad the same way, all my life she would walk all over him like he was a doormat and he’d let her. Don’t get me wrong my dad has a spine, he’s nothing like Carl, tough business type, but when it comes to my mom, he’ll give her whatever she wants, he loves her too much.” Max scoffs, making Nikki look over at him waiting for an explanation, even he’s caught off guard. 

“It’s just,” Max runs a hand through his hair, thinking about his next words carefully, “I don’t believe in love.” Nikki looks at him like he’s crazy, he puts his hands up in defense. “It’s not that I think it doesn’t exist, but I think it’s something incredibly rare and special, I just don’t think that when people think their in love, they're actually  _ in love _ , they just like the idea, it’s not real. I mean my biological parents hated each other, your dad and Carl are just infatuated with your mom, while she just manipulates them. They only people I’ve seen who are actually in love is Gwen and David, and I’ve been judging people for eighteen years.” Max finishes off his small rant to look over at Nikki who seems to be in deep thought. “What’re you thinking about?”

“How did you get so cynical? I mean I thought I was dark, but at least I’m holding onto the hope of living my life to the fullest and probably someone to love me. But you, you don’t have any hope for the future? You don’t think it’s real or matters at all.” Nikki continues to think out loud as Max watches her. 

Maybe telling her that he didn’t believe in love was a bad idea when trying to sell himself to her, but what else was he supposed to do? Tell her that he believed in love and that it wasn’t some concept people came up with to get over the fact their lonely and going to continue to be lonely unless they found someone. 

“What else were you expecting?” Max wants his voice to be humorous, but it comes out hard and a little cold. 

Nikki seems to think a bit before turning away to look at the ground. “Nothing I guess.” She gives him a little shrug before talking. “I just, ” She sighs, “I wanted something to believe in, I know everything you just said is true, and I’ve seen the way Gwen and David look at each other, but after everything I’ve seen and experienced, I was hoping that maybe I had a chance at happiness and love, instead of being stuck in the same twisted fate my mom has.” Nikki looks up at him. “Pretty pathetic huh?” She tries to joke, but sees the pain hidden behind her eyes and scoots closer to her, putting his arm around her. 

“No.” Max says simply, bringing his hand to the back of her head to bring it forward so he can kiss the top of it, she leans on his shoulder. “Ya know,” He takes in a deep breath, “if you want to know what’s really pathetic,” Nikki looks up when she hears the bitter chuckle that leaves Max’s mouth, “you should hear my life story.” There’s a smile on his face as he talks, though his eyes never leave the spot on the wall almost as if he was dazed. “I was stuck in a nightmare of a house until I was eight, then when my teachers decided to call Child Protective Services after I was left at the school for hours after the, what was it? Eighth, maybe Tenth time that year. Anyway, I was stuck in the foster system after they decided that I shouldn’t be left at home alone for days at a time, which I was fine with honestly, but apparently that wasn’t normal.” Nikki watches as Max begins to hunch over a bit as he talks.

“Max you don’t have to-” She begins, but is cut off by Max letting out a quick laugh.

  
“It’s fine really.” Max smiles at her, Nikki notices how the left side of his mouth twitches a bit at the foreign expression. “So foster care was probably just as fun as my old home was, you had the kids that would cut you if you came too close, the kids that were too scared to move or breathe, the somewhat normal kids, the smart kids who knew how to get out of the sticky situations and then there were the kids that just didn’t care, because they had seen it all, seen what it was going to be like until they were at least eighteen. I was somewhere between the smart and uncaring kids, mostly because the “bad” kids did drugs and the quiet ones were more likely to get cut by the ones on drugs. I was in at least three houses before I ended up in Davids, the first one was just in it for the foster checks, the next had their own kids they had to take care of so its not really like they cared and the last one, weren’t good people, it was one of those houses that you had to lock your door at night and keep your head down. Then there was David.” Nikki watches as his empty smile transitions into a genuine one. “God, he was so happy and cheerful all the damn time, especially when I first got to his apartment. He wanted so badly for us to be this perfect little duo, but I thought that he was an idiot for thinking that, I mean No One is That Happy all the time. I kept pushing him in different ways, just for him to mess up or break or anything, just to show me he was at least human in some way, that it wasn’t just me who was broken. He put up with me though, he still does, he didn’t try to change me, he knew I was going to be me no matter what, all he wanted to do was to make sure I was happy.” The smile fades and it’s silent for a moment. 

“Max?”

“We were six months in, and David said he wanted to adopt me.” Nikki’s eye’s widen when she notices the way his eyes start to glaze over, almost as if he were about to cry, she holds on to his hand waiting for him to continue. “I don’t know why he wanted to, it didn’t seem, real, he could have any kid, someone who didn’t push him to his limit or misbehave on the daily. And that got me angry, I told him, “You’re going to waste your life trying to fix the unfixable.” and that made him mad.” Max lets out a watery chuckle. “He said he wasn’t trying to fix me, I of course told him that was bull shit, that he should go get some other kid who had a better attitude, he told me he didn’t want any other kid, he wanted to adopt me, that he had come to love me as a son, I said “I hate you dad” and he started crying, I went to my room and didn’t come out for a while.That was the first time I had called him that, dad.”

“I had no idea.” Nikki looks up from their hands to see wiping at his face with his shoulders. “I don’t know what to say.”

“You don’t have to say anything.” Max shrugs casually, like he hadn’t just told her his entire back story. “Just thanks for listening.” He smiles down at her and she smiles back.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Nikki has hope  
> And Max still doesn't believe in love  
> Nice  
> Hope you enjoyed these emotional children!  
> Thanks for reading!


	10. I Trust You

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Max and Neil have a chat

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> SORRY THIS TOOK FOREVER   
> PLEASE EXCEPT THIS AS TRIBUTE   
> ENJOY

Max found that he was very weak for girls with big pink eyes, he was starting to see a pattern for why he was always in so much trouble. Now it wasn’t necessarily trouble he found himself in with Nikki, it was more of being convinced to do things he would’ve hated to do. He hadn’t planned on going to Nikki’s pageant, mostly because it seemed like something she hated to acknowledge, so the fact that he, and Sasha, knew about it was probably enough. As it turns out though, things never go as planned. 

Nikki’s talent was dancing to the song  _ Baby it’s Cold Outside,  _ She was supposed to dance it with her usual dance partner for her pageants, some guy named Patrick, Apparently they had been dancing together since she started out, he was five years older and did the choreography for every dance they did. Unfortunately he broke his ankle the day before and now Nikki was short a dancer, Neil would help out but it turned out that he was born with two left feet and she knew for a fact that Max could dance to some extent. Which led to Max being talked into helping out, which then led to Nikki and Max working on the dance for two days straight and him sleeping over the night before so he didn’t have to worry about getting the hotel without getting lost. But then again, things never work out the way they should. 

They were late, like a hour plus traffic late, like stupidly late, like they should’ve left at seven am instead of nine-twenty, now it was a race against the clock as the three teens rushed to grab everything and get into the car. 

Max watches the road ahead as he speeds with the strict determination to not turn around or look in the rearview, while Neil sits in the passenger seat telling him directions, not really caring about the hysteria going on behind him. Max peaks up at the rearview mirror to see sweats being pulled off Nikki’s bare legs, he quickly averts his eyes to look back at the road as he feels his face begin to flush red. 

“Turn right, turn right!” Neil shouts as they get to intersection, Max makes the last minute right, the sound of multiple horns can be heard as they cut off a few people, Max flips them off without looking back, meanwhile Nikki goes tumbling in the back. 

“Can you be a little more careful on those turns please!” Nikki’s annoyed voice yells from the back. “Shit.” She mumbles quietly to herself. 

“What?” Neil asks worriedly as looks into the rearview mirror.

“My dress just tore.” Max can hear the slight panic in her voice along with the rustling of her dress.

“Show me, I’ll fix it.” Neil kicks off his shoes, so as to not get anything on the dress, and unbuckles his seat belt before climbing into the back seat. “Where’s the sewing kit?” 

“First pocket second bag.” The sound of frantic shuffling of bags and zippers opening and closing fills the car. “Did you find it?” Nikki asks.

“I found it, I found it, now hold still.” Neil mumbles, and then its silent as Neil begins to sew up the broken dress, Max began to panic again as they got closer to another intersection.

“Neil where am I heading.” He calls back.

“Let me check.” Which is followed by Nikki exclaiming in pain. 

“Watch the needle would you!”

They make it in one piece despite the traffic, slippery roads, and their reckless driving, but they’re there and that’s all that really matters at the moment. Max can’t help but to be amazed at how Nikki sticks so many tools near her eye’s,  _ while _ running, and still have it turn out even and better than most of the girls he’d seen so far as they ran by. Neil is ahead of the other two and by then had signed Nikki in as she went running past barely grabbing her number and pinning it to her dress. The two boys run, with all the equipment in hand, until they reach the audience to see Nikki burst out of the curtain just in time. 

Her first two steps onto the stage were unstable and for a split second Max held his breath as he waited for her to fall on her face. Instead he watched as her next steps were filled with such grace and balance and dignity, that she could be placed in a room of royalty and he wouldn’t be able to find the difference between her and the rest. The only signs that showed that she had been somewhat rushed was her flushed face and how her chest heaved just a bit. As they began to name off the contestants and their numbers and what not, Neil pulled Max to the back so they could get ready for when Nikki was done up on stage. 

They had three bags, one for make up, another for hair, and another for snacks, Nikki made sure that one was in the car for sure before they left. They also had three garment bags, two for Nikki’s gowns, the one she was wearing right now, which was a white silk gown with a red sash wrapping around her waist, the other one was the dress she was going to wear for their dance. The two boys caught their breath in their little corner of the touch up area, Nikki came back, lifted up her skirt to just below her hip before plopping down onto the floor next to the table, her hair serving as a pillow as she fell back. 

“C’mon Nik’, don’t lay on your hair or else we’re going to have to do it again.” Neil complained from his position sitting on top of one of the folding tables, where the rest of their things sat. 

Nikki grumbles from the floor, throwing an arm over her face. “Fuck it. I’ve got twenty minutes before I’m on again.” 

“Yeah, but now we have to do your makeup again.” Nikki lifts her arm up to look at Neil then at her arm that has bits of her eye makeup on it.

“Damn it.” Nikki gets up and begins to poke max in the face gto get him move out of the chair he was currently sitting in. “I need to sit.” Nikki says simply looking down at him. Max moves wordlessly giving her a small smile as she sits down on the chair. 

The two begin to re prep Nikki, their movements less frantic than before, as Neil plugs in the curling iron and Nikki takes out the makeup and other tools to touch up her face. Max continues to sit on the floor as he watches their actions, they look almost fluid as they work around each other.

“How come your mom isn’t here? If she’s the one that wants you to be doing these things anyway.” Nikki and Neil stare at Max for a moment before going back to their work. 

“I honestly don’t know.” Nikki puts a layer of mascara on her lashes before putting it back in the bag. “She just sort of stopped, after she married Carl she’d leave me and Neil alone, then pick us and the reward up after.” Nikki shrugs it off. 

Max looks up at Neil who’s looking back at him with a slight shake of his head, the two continue on without another word.

Max and Neil sit in the audience as they wait for Nikki’s name to be called, Neil told him this is the part where the contestants basically smile and wave and get points for being pretty. The two boys watch as she steps on stage and Max is brought back into that feeling of utter adoration, he’s been feeling that a lot lately, she could be lazing around in a sweatshirt and sweatpants like she was last night and she was the most beautiful thing on earth to him. 

“She’s amazing.” Max breathes out without thinking, Neil looks at him from the corner of his eye and simply purses his lips. 

“Yeah.”  Neil says simply before sighing. “Can you walk with me for a minute Max,” he looks at Neil questioningly, he smiles at him, “I just need to stretch my legs.” 

He shrugs before getting up from his chair. “Sure.” Neil follows him out of the  room, they walk for a bit before Neil speaks out. 

“I’ve been meaning to ask you something.” Neil stops walking, keeping his hands in his pockets as he looks down at his feet with furrowed eyebrows. 

“Yeah?” Max turns to look at his friend and begins to feel his pulse quicken at the sudden tension building, he keeps a neutral face the best he can.

“How do you know Sasha?” Max’s stomach drops, in all the time that Max has known Neil he’s never seen him with such a stoic face, it looked on the brink of being straight up vicious. 

Max struggles with words for a moment.“We, we went to school together, had some of the same classes and what not.” Max can’t bare to meet Neils eye as he spoke, fearing he’d see right through him.

“Are you guys friends?” Neil asks with no distinct tone, just waiting, waiting for Max to slip up. 

“More like good acquaintances, we’ll text here and there.” He shrugs like it’s no big deal, but it is a big deal, because if Max so much as shows any signs that he may be more than “good acquaintances” with Sasha, his life would be over, he’d lose Nikki, Neil, all the friends he never had, he’d lose everything.

Neil simply nods before he begins again. “I want you to know what happened between Nikki and Sasha, just so you know exactly what your getting into.” The two watch as two little girls in dresses go squealing past them, Neil waits until their out of sight before he starts. “Nikki doesn’t cry,” Max looks up to meet Neil in the eye, “ever, she’s skinned her knees, fell out of trees, been attacked by animals, but never has she cried. Only once have I seen my sister cry.” Neil holds up a single finger, Max feels his stomach begin to twist. “In the sixth grade Nikki had joined the only girl scouts in the school, the Flower Scouts, she had hoped they’d be like boy scouts and you can imagine her disappointment.” Max watches as Neil smiles fondly at the memory. “But Candy put her in and wouldn’t let her quit, so she stayed.” His face turns sour as he continues to talk. “According to the troop it was traditional to pull a prank on the new girl,” Max nods along remembering Sasha’s words, “they had a sleepover and the girls kept complimenting Nikki’s hair and how long it was, so while Nikki was sleeping all the other girls grabbed a chunk of her hair and cut it off.” Max feels his eyes go wide as the image plays in his head, he resists the urge to call Sasha and yell at her, Neil nods at Max’s reaction. “Yeah, Nikki had trusted those girls ya know? She hadn’t had any friends beside me before, because back then being outgoing like Nikki was a threat. Do you know what it’s like to trust someone and then have them turn around and stab you in the back?” Max shakes his head, Neil does the same. “Neither do I, but I would protect Nikki to make sure nothing like that never happens again,” Neil makes sure Max is looking him in the eye before he speaks, “do you understand?” The look is back, but now Max can tell what it is, it’s the urge to protect and fight for his sister 

“I understand.” Max says simply, wordlessly the two head back to prepare for Nikki and Max’s dance. 

Nikki and Max stand just beyond the audience's view as they wait for their names to be called, he peeks at her from the corner of his eye. Nikki wears a red halter dress with jeweled designs on the top half, she takes a calming breath, her fingers begin to fidget as the girl in front of them finishes. Max takes Nikki’s hand in his and kisses it, she whips her head to look at him with wide eyes.

“Don’t be nervous,” he brings their hands down, but doesn’t let go, “your going to be amazing.” Max shoots her a smile as their names are called and Nikki smiles back before walking on stage keeping their hands intertwined.

The two get in position and wait for the music to begin, Nikki looks at Max and mouths at him _ ‘I trust you.’ _ and the music starts and Max’s heart soars. They dance how they rehearsed, the movements coming easily to them as they show the push and pull of the song. They show the wanting and denying and the need to be together, Max never thought much of the song before, but now it’s everything to him as they dance and soon it’s just them in the room and the only thing that’s important is Nikki. He’s glad that Patrick had broken his ankle or else he would have never gotten to do this, for a brief moment Max feels a pang of jealousy shoot through him, but only for a moment because he’s here now and he’s getting to dance with her. There’s a hot second where he thinks to himself if this is what love is, but he immediately shoo’s the thought away, knowing this won’t last, but this moment is all he needs for right now. Before he knows it, Max is dipping Nikki as the last lyrics play. 

_ Baby it’s cold outside _

It takes everything in Max’s body to lift her up and take a bow instead of kissing her right there on stage, but they walk off and Neil tells them they did great and how impressed the judges were. Max goes to the bathroom to change back into his jeans and sweatshirt, ignoring the girls around him whispering and giggling as he walked past. When he gets back, Nikki’s already back in her white gown preparing for the last line up to name titles. Neil and Max Pack up quickly and head into the audience to hear the results. Nikki stands smiling on stage as she waits, to anyone else she’d look like the perfect contestant, but to Neil and Max they could see in Nikki’s eyes how she was ready to bolt and ready for this whole thing to be over. This was it, it was the last time she’d ever be forced to do anything like this again, as soon as she got her prize, that’d be her ticket to freedom.

Nikki won Ultimate Grand Supreme, she took her prizes with the dignity and grace only a princess could have, and little girls who had just seen the graceful Nikki just moments before, watched in awe as Nikki broke out into a sprint out of the auditorium and through the hotel lobby with a loud laugh and two boys running after her with smiles on their faces. 

Neil drove back home with Nikki sitting in the passenger seat and Max sitting in the back, the three talked and laughed the entire way home. Nikki’s joy was contagious and it wasn’t just that she won three hundred dollars, but that she didn’t have to do anything for her mom ever again. 

They dropped Max off at his apartment building, they all said their goodbyes, Neil giving Max a quick fist bump and Nikki gave him a wave as he scooted out of the back seat, he walked towards his building with a smile and was about to go through the revolving doors when Nikki’s voice called out to him. 

“Max wait!” He turned around just in time to catch Nikki in his arms as she jumped up and kissed him, her heels long gone, the two smiled into the kiss before they pulled away, Max pants a bit. “Did I take your breath away Greenwood?” Nikki teases while she whispering making sure to keep close. 

“What was that for?” He asks simply a smile stuck on his face. 

“It was a thank you.” Nikki whispers before running back to the car with bare feet.

Max watches as they pull away, and continues to stare long after their gone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In case your wondering what their dance looked like, it sort of looked like this   
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0BcIz6QWnsM  
> Hope you enjoyed!

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading, and I'm not sure if all my chapters are going to be this long, but I'm gonna try  
> Support and Constructive criticism is appreciated!!!


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